Les Mystères de Paris

Rodolphe, a German grand duke disguised as a laborer, roams the slums of Paris to help the destitute. In doing so, he atones for a past sin. He becomes the protector of Fleur-de-Marie, a young orphan girl whom poverty has driven to prostitution. Fleur-de-Marie repeatedly falls into the hands of her persecutors, a criminal couple known as the Owl and the Schoolmaster, who are in the pay of the duke's enemies. When the duke discovers that he is the girl's father, he takes her in at Gerolstein.