In fifteenth-century France, King Louis XI Walter Hampden is besieged in Paris by Charles, Duke of Burgundy, and his allies. Even within the city, Louis's reign is disputed, and the mood among the common people is restless. The irreverent, persuasive beggar poet François Villon Oreste Kirkop wins genuine loyalty from the masses, his streetwise charisma making him a folk hero in a time of political turmoil.
Louis goes in disguise to a tavern to gauge what kind of man this poet is. Villon reveals he has no love for the king, and the encounter plants the seeds of a precarious pact. Soon after, Louis observes Thibault d'Aussigny [Leslie Nielsen] meeting with Rene de Montigny [William Prince], an agent of the Duke of Burgundy, in the same place. Thibault shows Rene a list of Parisians ready to overthrow Louis, a list that proves the conspiracy runs deeper than the surface of the city’s glittering façades. Yet Villon, who bears a private grudge against Thibault, challenges his foe with a swift sword duel, during which the incriminating document slips to the floor and is picked up by Louis. The city guard halts the clash, and the moment exposes the fragility of the king’s security. Louis steps into the light, and Villon and his companions are hauled away to the dungeon, though Thibault manages to slip free.
In a surreal garden setting—trees bearing the bodies of hanged traitors—Villon faces Louis directly. The monarch offers leniency: Villon could live as the new provost marshal, with Burgundy’s ambitions stalled, if he agrees to cooperate. Villon refuses the easy path, and Louis sweetens the deal by introducing Catherine de Vaucelles [Kathryn Grayson], a noblewoman Villon has fallen for, into the bargain as well, proposing a marriage that would secure both his life and the future of those he protects. Villon accepts and is introduced to Catherine in disguise as “Count François de Montcorbier” from Savoy, a ruse that complicates the budding romance. Rumors swirl through Catherine’s household that she is to marry the count; she is puzzled at first, then furious when she discovers the truth. Villon’s protests of sincere love clash with Catherine’s conviction that the king is a benevolent ruler worth admiring.
Louis then guides Villon, through the orders of his military commander, Antoine de Chabannes (the turncoat turns out to be de Chabannes himself), toward the dungeon where the king believes a traitor leader is being held. Villon is captured only to be rescued when Huguette [Rita Moreno] intervenes, warning them that a Burgundian agent, Jehan, is stirring the rabble in Villon’s name. With Huguette’s timely signals, Villon turns Burgundy’s own stratagem against him. As traitors open the city gates to the invaders, the mob—led by Villon—closes the gates behind them, trapping the Burgundian forces inside and overwhelming them with the help of the commoners. In the ensuing combat, Huguette dies heroically, leaping in front of Villon to shield him from an arrow.
Villon’s defiant leadership culminates in the fall of Burgundy and the escalation of the city’s uprising, with Thibault and his conspirators defeated. After the battle, Villon accepts his fate and walks toward the gallows to fulfill the bargain he made. When the crowd grows furious at the looming execution, Louis offers a way out: a spare, if someone else agrees to take Villon’s place. Catherine steps forward at the last moment, offering herself for the sacrifice. Louis, however, recalls a legal loophole: a man who weds a noblewoman can be spared, and he proceeds to free Villon by that law, though Catherine’s wealth is confiscated to cover the war’s costs. The film closes on a note of grim triumph, with a city that has chosen its own unconventional heroes and a poet who has traded danger for a life shaped by love and loyalty.
