In France in the late 1920s, Célestine, a stylish and striking young chambermaid from Paris, arrives at a provincial estate and enters a household that includes a cook, a timid maid named Marianne, and Joseph, the groom who spends his evenings drafting nationalist, anti-Semitic leaflets with a friend. She is chiefly hired to work for the elderly Monsieur Rabour, who insists on calling her Marie—the name he has used for all of his chambermaids—and who enjoys close, sometimes intimate, moments as she reads to him and moves about in a carefully chosen pair of shoes. He defends Madame Monteil, his daughter, when she breaks a lamp, and he watches over Célestine with a possessive, if eccentric, tenderness.
Madame Monteil runs the household with a sharp, exacting hand, while the broader family binds themselves to old world routines. The couple remains emotionally distant due to her dyspareunia, a problem the local priest has not helped with, and Monsieur Monteil copes by hunting in the surrounding woods and pursuing any nearby woman, including the former chambermaid, though Célestine manages to keep him at arm’s length. A long-simmering quarrel with the retired Captain Mauger over property and rumors about his own housekeeper, Rose Rose, underscores the fragile social balance of the estate.
When Rabour is found dead in his bed, clutching the boots he had Célestine wear for him, a dark tension settles over the estate. Around the same time, Joseph encounters Claire, a prepubescent peasant girl who moves freely around the woods and kitchen area, and commits a brutal act against her. Six days later, Claire’s body is discovered, and Célestine, who is about to leave for Paris, suspects Joseph of the murder and resolves to reclaim her position and gather evidence to implicate him.
Joseph, a fastidious man, notices when Célestine searches his room. He confronts her, and although their exchanges have been contentious, he proclaims a kind of shared inner kinship and declares his love for Célestine, insisting they are meant to be together. He postpones any immediate marriage, hinting at a future partnership, while she attempts to seduce him to secure leverage. He reveals plans to marry and buy a café in Cherbourg, suggesting that a coming revolution could yield opportunities. In a crucifix-tounded oath, she swears she will marry him so he will sleep with her, and when he climbs into bed, she demands him to admit his role in Claire’s death, but he merely bids her to be quiet. The couple announces their engagement, and Monsieur Monteil shifts his attention from Célestine to Marianne.
To trap Joseph, Célestine removes the metal toe plate from one of his shoes. Meanwhile, Joseph and his friend prepare to attend a right-wing rally, but two police officers arrive and arrest them, having found the toe plate at the scene of Claire’s murder. As he is led away, Joseph insists he was not wearing those shoes the day Claire was killed.
Convinced she has avenged Claire, Célestine contemplates marrying Mauger. He awaits her, amends his will to leave everything to her, but she remains cool and dispassionate. When asked about Joseph, Mauger explains that he will be released without a trial due to a lack of solid evidence. The story closes back in Cherbourg, where Joseph’s café becomes a staging ground for a parade of nationalist sentiment, a scene he shares with his younger wife, who has helped fill the place with soldiers.
