Cooper Grandet from the French city of Saumur is a very strange person for the environment in which he lives. The meaning of his life becomes the accumulation of gold, which for him represents the greatest value in life. At home with his family, he lives like the biggest pauper, he even decides on the food that the maid Nanon gives out in the morning. The monotonous life is interrupted by the arrival of nephew Karel, who is sent by his father from Paris, where he has gone bankrupt. Old Grandet's daughter, Evženia, meets her first great love, for which she is determined to sacrifice everything...