François Vidocq, the eternal escapee, has been captured and is on his way to the Toulon penal colony. But he escapes with his comrades, the acrobat and Henri Desfossés. When the alarm is raised, Vidocq hides out with a young widow, but she turns him in. Finding the acrobat dying, he asks Vidocq to use his death to escape again. But Inspector Flambart is hot on his trail...

Back in Paris and on the run from the police, Vidocq takes refuge in a jewelry shop that turns out to belong to Jacquelin, Vidocq's former army comrade. Jacquelin offers to hire Vidocq as a clerk, and Vidocq accepts - after meeting Jacquelin's neighbor Mademoiselle Annette. While he plays the poet for Annette and foils attempted robberies at the jewelry store, the Parisian underworld begins to get suspicious...

Vidocq is looking for Herbaux and Grouard, the two men who once sentenced him to the penal colony. He tells Annette the story: as a soldier, he was in love with a woman named Francine, who cheated on him. Sentenced to three months in prison for beating up one of his lovers, Herbaux and Grouard borrowed his cell to do some writing. Their forgery discovered, they accused Vidocq, who was convicted. But Vidocq was unaware of Grouard's dealings with the police and Herbaux's latest conviction...

Imprisoned at Bicêtre, Vidocq is reunited with his comrade Henri Desfossés. Wounded in the leg so as not to leave with the chain, Vidocq reveals to Desfossés that there is a tunnel dug into the courtyard of the madhouse. But not only are the madmen more dangerous than the guards, the coachman hired by Annette wants to be paid immediately, and Vidocq must return to prison to retrieve the money confiscated from him...

Fleeing from Inspector Flambart, Vidocq separates from Annette and Desfossés and manages to surprise the policeman. But the next village had asked for help from the Parisian police, and Vidocq, armed with Flambart's papers, is drawn into a criminal investigation: the Baron de Flocheron has been stabbed in the night, and Justine, the servant whose lover he was, is suspected. But Vidocq immediately finds something fishy: the Baron was already dead when he was stabbed. Can he find the real culprit before the real Inspector Flambart manages to talk to the mayor ?