César Soubeyran, aka 'le Papet' Yves Montand, and his nephew Ugolin Soubeyran Daniel Auteuil return from service to a sun-drenched Provençal hillside just after the First World War, and throw themselves into a bold plan: to cultivate carnations and turn a modest plot into a thriving enterprise. Their initial success at the market whets their appetite for expansion, and they set their sights on land owned by the cantankerous Pique-Bouffigue Marcel Champel. The land appears dry, but Papet is convinced a hidden spring could change everything, a resource that would water the soil and make the project almost inevitable.
Pique-Bouffigue refuses to sell, and tempers flare into a violent confrontation. Papet’s blow ends the dispute, and after the funeral the two men cement the spring shut, a secret they share but that is witnessed by a lone poacher who sees the act from a distance. The land then changes hands, passing to Florette's family through inheritance, only to be claimed by her son, Jean Cadoret Gérard Depardieu, a city-born tax collector who has his own vision of how to live off the land. In the village, Ugolin adopts the nickname “Jean de Florette” to deter him, and Papet even damages the roof of Jean’s future home to hinder his plans. Jean arrives with his wife Aimée Cadoret Elisabeth Depardieu and their young daughter Manon Cadoret Ernestine Mazurowna, insisting that he will not sell and intends to make the farm productive within two years, raising rabbits and growing crops with a stubborn, earnest energy.
Ugolin finds Jean likeable enough to cultivate a fragile alliance, yet Papet keeps pulling the strings from the shadows, never truly befriending the city man but watching as he toils on the land. Jean remains blissfully unaware that the critical spring has been blocked and that another source lies two kilometers away, a distance he cannot easily bridge without water. He relies on the rain, collects across the land in cisterns, and methodically works to irrigate what crops he dares plant. Meanwhile, Ugolin and Papet work to turn the local villagers against him, mindful that Pique-Bouffigue’s kin could expose the ruse if they grew close to Jean.
As Jean makes modest early gains—his rabbits bring a small profit—the practicalities of water loom larger. The rains fall in other areas but skip his fields, and a sirocco wind lifts the dust and threatens to ruin the farm. Jean decides to dig a well, hoping to liberate himself from the capricious weather, while Ugolin plants seeds of doubt about the venture. He asks about selling, and Papet even contemplates underwriting a mortgage to keep Jean dependent on his support. The dynamic grows tenser as the mortgage money is used to buy dynamite for the well; the first blast misfires, a rock flies into the cavity, and Jean is killed by the fall.
Ugolin returns with the tragic news to Papet, who asks why his eyes are wet. "It is not me who's crying," he responds, "it's my eyes." [> "It is not me who's crying," he responds, "it's my eyes."]
Aimée and Manon cannot stay on the farm, and Papet buys them out. As they pack, the two men travel to the blocked spring and remove the plug. Manon follows, and when she sees what they are doing, she screams in horror. The men hear her but dismiss the sound as the cry of a buzzard. Papet then performs a mock baptism of his nephew in the water of the spring, sealing the grim twist of their scheme.
The tale closes as a stark, balanced meditation on greed, pride, and the merciless land, where the dream of prosperity becomes a ruinous feud that costs everything the characters hold dear. The interplay of ambition, secrecy, and the unforgiving environment leaves a lasting impression of a community torn between old ways and new desires, and of two men whose plans for a simple, fruitful life come at an incalculable price.
