Sixteen-year-old Agnes considers herself to be retarded. In reality, the lonely girl is normal, her situation a product of her father's retreat from reality after the death of her mother. He resigned from his post as a judge and lives on the coast of Brittany with Agnes, who was taken out of school at age 12. Agnes has made a scarecrow to be her companion and has dressed it in her father's old suit. When she finds Joseph, an escaped prisoner, wearing the suit, she believes that her creation has come alive. Agnes and her father, with Karen, their servant, take Joseph in and nurse his wounds. Joseph becomes part of the household, but when Agnes discovers Joseph and Karen making love, she tries to kill Karen. Karen then leaves, and soon Agnes and Joseph are lovers. Her father discovers them and beats her. The gendarme whom Joseph injured in his escape dies, and so Joseph is sought for murder. Joseph and Agnes run away to the city, which so bewilders Agnes that she returns home. Joseph is killed by the police when he follows Agnes; and Agnes and her father resume their life in a new adult relationship.