Having become a beggar on the streets, Alexis reminisces about his love affair with a wealthy girl, Eva, who gave him the accordion he always wanted. When she became pregnant, Alexis suggested that she not have an abortion, in exchange for disappearing from her life. She married a failed man of aristocratic descent, who soon abandoned her for a cabaret dancer, embezzling a large part of her fortune. Alexis kidnaps his child and ends up in prison. Many years later, he is released from prison and watches his daughter's progress from afar. She learns the truth about her father from a former employee of her mother's business and rushes to find him.