Just before the end of her career in a big fashion house, an established seamstress is robbed in the metro. When the young woman who mugged her returns her handbag, she decides to introduce her to the world of haute couture.

Nelie escapes a miserable existence by becoming a frontline nurse in 1914. One day, a woman from a good family is killed in front of her, and Nelie decides to assume her identity and take her position as the reader for the wealthy Madame de Lengwil.

Colonel Paul Andreas Breitner is forced to cross Algeria during a war and search for his former senior officer, Colonel Simon Delignières, who went missing in the Aurès-Nemencha.