The action takes place in Paris in the 1860s and 1880s. The main character is an old scribe, obsessed with a noble passion for ancient manuscripts. One day, he helped a poor woman who lived next door by sending her a cup of broth and a log for the fireplace. Bonar soon forgot about his deed. Eight years later, he received an old manuscript as a gift, which he had long dreamed of, and was surprised to learn that the giver was the woman he had helped in a difficult moment.

Based on the novella of the same name by the French writer Honore de Balzac from the cycle "Philosophical Etudes".

Vanina Vanini is a Roman aristocrat, “a black-haired girl with a fiery gaze,” who despises the timid and insignificant-hearted young people of her circle, but selflessly fell in love with the young Carbonari, whose courage and willingness to die for the liberation of Italy from the Austrians corresponds to her passion and pride. Faced with the need to make a sacrifice to duty, Vanina and Pietro, like the characters in classic literature, must choose between loyalty to their homeland and loyalty to their feelings, and this is the choice of fate. Vanina chooses love; In order to save Pietro, she betrays to the police the remaining members of the Venta he leads.