Beautiful and poor, Fanny tries to escape from a life of hardship and her drunkard father. She earns her living selling flowers but, one evening, while looking for customers in a restaurant, her beauty catches the attention of Caoudal, a famous sculptor who takes her as his model. Having become his mistress, the young woman begins to love that luxurious life. A poet, a friend of Caoudal and even more famous than him, is inspired by her for his poems. Greedy for success and admiration, Fanny also leaves her new lover, too old for her, for the young engraver Flamant. The latter, mad with love for the woman, wants her to be surrounded by the luxury he loves so much and to make her happy, he breaks the law and ends up in prison.
At a great ball, where she introduces herself as Sapho, Fanny meets Jean, a young provincial unaware of his past. The woman falls deeply in love with him and the two are happy together. But, when Jean finds out who Sapho really is, he leaves her to return to his abandoned girlfriend. In church, during the wedding ceremony, Fanny decides to leave the past behind and start a new life. From that moment, she will join the Red Cross where she will work as a nurse, dedicating herself to her fellow men.
