Film's Storyline:
France, 1780 Young Coung Philippe, Lord of Coetquen castle near the village of Dinam, has recently married beautiful Christine, the daughter of a poor fisherman from the west. In spite of her humble origins, Christine has been well recieved by Philippe’s aristocratic friends after young Duchess Dominique de Matignon showed great friendship for her. Philippe’s younger brother, Ferdinand and Gael, are anything but satisfied on the other hand, with his marriage, excluded, as was the custom at that time, from the paternal inheritance. Ferdinand, jealous of Philippe’s power and authority, sees every possible future claim jeopardized by the fact that Christine is pregnant: her child will be the sole heir to the Coetquen patrimony. Gael, on his side, who would like to marry Dominique de Matigno, hates Christine. Although she is accepted in society, his sister-in-law remains the daughter of a fisherman and Dominique’s father, he is certain, would never become the kinsman of a plebeian. Ferdinand plays on this fear of Gael to carry out his terrible plan to eliminate at one fell swoop his young sister-in-law and the child she bears in her womb. So in agreement with the intendant of the castle, Morel, the two brothers, taking advantage of an absence of Philippe, imprison Christine in the dungeon of a tower in the castle and pretend that she is dead. Philippe, miracously escaping from some brigand lying in wait for him in the forest (Ferdinand himself had organized the ambush), returns to the castle and learns the news of his wife’s death. Overwhelmed with grief, Philippe takes less and less interest in the affairs of the castle and Ferdinand gradually becomes the unquestioned master. In the meantime poor Christine is living a miserable existence in the dungeon of the tower while the end of her pregnancy is approaching. One day she nearly dies drowned in her cell at the hand of Ferdinand, determined to kill her unbeknown to his brother Gael, who does not intend to be guilty of such a dreadful sin. She is saved by chance by Simon, the intendant, who seems on the point of telling Philippe everything. Ferdinand, however, realizes in time and threatens Simon. Te latter, taking advantage of the opportunity, blackmails his masters: he will keep silent on condition that Ferdinand marries his daughter Odette. Ferdinand temporizes, but it is clear that has already condemned his accomplice to death, within himself. One day Philippe leaves the castle and takes refuge in a convent. In a letter wich he sends to his brothers he announces that he has committed suicide and leaves all his property to Ferdinand and Gael. The latter has just learned that Dominique de Matignon has taken the veil. His brother’s suicide shakes his mental balance, already precarious; while ferdinand is celebrating the power that is finally in his hands, Gael hangs himself. At the same time, with the help of a boy who has discovered Christine’s prison by chance, the poor woman puts her baby, just born after her escape from the dungeon, in a safe place. For fear of being discovered by Ferdinand, she entrust the child to the village convent: the same convent in which her husband Philippe has found refuge. Then she sets off to go to her father’s village. Thanks to an identification mark that Christine has left on the child, Philippe discovers that the infant is his son. So he leaves the convent and penetrates into the castle where Ferdinand has shut himself up, terrorized by the ghosts of his victims who haunt his dreams. Philippe confronts his brother but the latter, fleeing among the embattlementes of the caslte, falls to the ground and dies. Through the boy who helped Christine to flee, Philippe traces his wife. Love soon banishes the memory of their horrible experience from the castle.
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