When her old resistance buddies come to her looking for someone to helm a financially troubled liberal newspaper, Judith (Simone Signoret) is at first reluctant, but for this old hero of the French anti-Nazi resistance, challenges are hard to ignore. She takes on the job, mortgaging her house to keep the paper solvent. When things take a turn for the worse, because of concerted opposition by conservative forces, she is forced to sell the paper, and she regards this as a personal failure.

While two theater groups rehearse plays by Aeschylus, two solitary individuals wander the Parisian streets hustling the populace for cash.