1815. Jacquou, a young peasant from the Perigord region, lives happily with his parents. Because of a cruel and arrogant nobleman, the Count of Nansac, he becomes a miserable orphan. Jacquou grows up under the protection of the good priest Bonal, who has taken him in. Thanks to true friends and to Lina, a patient and radiant young woman, within a few years Jacquou becomes a determined and attractive young man who transforms his vow of vengeance into a struggle against injustice, thereby proving that a simple yokel is not without greatness.