A scandalised Frenchman returns from Africa where he has been involved in illegal trading of mines (resulting in the deaths of many African miners). His bourgeois family are wary of the shame that he will bring so he must try to redeem himself and his family's name.
In 1917, a French deserter entered the service of German counterintelligence, but Villard (number 33) was a real French spy. Discovered, he is saved by a German spy who betrays her country for love.
Two girls, Ginette and Gaby, have just run away, outraged by the mistreatment of their governess. After many adventures, they will find their father, who has become a thug, and their mother who had disappeared in a shipwreck.