SYNOPSIS
Michel is a pickpocket, not for financial reasons but because he is driven to it. He lives in a tiny garret, estranged from his dying mother. He obtains pleasure from the act of stealing and from the danger it places him in. At a racetrack he is taken in by detectives, but they do not have enough evidence to charge him. When his mother dies Michel falls in with another pickpocket, who teaches him the tricks of the trade and they work together fleecing people at the railway station.
At the same time, he senses an attraction to Jeanne, the girl who nursed his mother in her final illness. But his own feelings are tied up in his exhilaration at the crimes he commits and the sense of power that it gives him. He is heading for disaster or redemption, or perhaps both.
