A sociologist researching a book interviews murderess Camille, who tells him the story of her life. Put in a reform school as a child for suspected patricide, and later transferred to an orphanage, she escaped and tricked a young man called Clovis into marrying her. After attempting to kill Clovis' mother, she fled to Paris, where she began an affair with a night-club singer. Camille has left a trail of destruction and deceit in her wake, which now threatens to engulf the sociologist.