A lackadaisical handyman and aspiring novelist tries to support his younger girlfriend as she slowly succumbs to madness.

Belgian drama.

Catherine Hubscher, laundress, saves the life of an Austrian nobleman with the complicity of her fiancé, Sergeant Lefebvre, the day when royalty collapses. And then the years pass ... Become Marshal of the Empire and Duke of Danzig, ex Sergeant Lefebvre always has for wife Catherine, the ex laundress; and this, in spite of the efforts made by the Emperor Napoleon to have him divorced, the Emperor blamed him strongly for the lack of distinction of Catherine. Faced with the Marshal's refusal, Catherine was summoned to the Emperor's house and the dialogue between them lacked heat to say the least, until the former lieutenant Bonaparte recognized in Maréchale Lefebvre, Catherine the laundress, who once , gave him credit for his laundering debts.

Description of a "hot street" and police methods: "raids", role of police assistants to stop the development of prostitution and "Nests", private works to rehabilitate prostitutes to normal life by teaching them a job.