A Legitimate Defense

Pierre Lambert buys a bar in Pigalle and accepts to pay "protection money" to "Bebert le Caid", a brutal gangster. Over time, Bebert raises his fare and, realizing Pierrot is reluctant to pay more, starts persecuting him. In the midst of an altercation with Bebert, Pierre kills him in self-defense. In a panic he goes to see Gustave Martinet, a police inspector, who has been his best friend since Pierre saved his life during the war. Gustaves advises him to turn himself over to the police, which he does. At the trial Pierre is acquitted but the mob does not forgive so easily...