On 9 January 1836, Pierre Lacenaire goes to the guillotine, a murderer and a thief. He gives Allard, a police inspector, his life story, written while awaiting execution. He also asks Allard to care for Hermine, a lass to whom he has been guardian for more than ten years. In flashbacks, from the prison as Lacenaire writes, from Allard's study as he and Hermine read, and from other readers' memory after the book is published, we see Lacenaire's childhood as he stands up to bullies, including priests, his youthful thieving, his first murder, his brief army career, his seduction of a princess, and his affair with Avril, a young man who dies beside him.
Daniel Auteuil
as Pierre-François Lacenaire
Jean Poiret
as Allard
Jacques Weber
as Jacques Arago
François Périer
as Lacenaire's father
Geneviève Casile
as Lacenaire's mother
Jean Davy
as Alphonse Damoiseau
Jacques Duby
as Marmignat
Paul Le Person
as Vigouroux
Maïwenn
as Hermine
Jacques Sereys
as Pertuizet
Rufus
as Canler
Gérard Desarthe
as Professor Tonnelier
