Luc Froment, a reform-minded engineer, starts working at a steel mill in a small town. There he founds small groups of workers (and their families) under miserable conditions. Under the influence of Fourier's ideas, Froment tries to turn the mill into a workers' co-operative.
The farmer Remy has just invented a new fertilizer and spies are trying to seize his documents, taking him for the famous Remy, inventor of a device of interest to national defence.
