In the mid-1800s in a northern French province, impressionable young Emma Roualt (Valentine Tessier) pines for the romantic life she reads about in novels. When kind doctor Charles Bovary (Pierre Renoir) tends to her father's broken leg, he is attracted to Emma and eventually courts and marries her. Desirous of glory and wealth, Emma pushes the decent but limited Charles to extend himself -- and when he meets with disaster, Emma begins a series of dangerous affairs to quell her dismay.