On the shores of the Channel on the Côte d’Opale. Near a hamlet, river and marshes, dwells a strange fellow who lives from hand to mouth, poaches, prays, and lights fires. He is close to a farmer’s daughter who looks after him and feeds him. By murdering the girl’s father, who is violent towards her, helping a kid who is seized by strange pains and killing a guard, this fellow drives evil away from the hamlet and its inhabitants, in a fight against the Devil, until a miracle occurs.