The miserly old Gaspard is steward to the exiled Marquises of Corneville. He maintains possession of the castle and the family's money by convincing the locals that it is haunted. He wants to force his niece, Germaine, to marry the old bailiff, because the latter has become suspicious of Gaspard and threatens to investigate his conduct of the Marquis's affairs. But Germaine feels under an obligation to Jean Grenicheux, an aristocratic young fisherman, who claims that he once rescued her from drowning. Gaspard has a maid named Serpolette, whom he found as a child abandoned in a field. She has grown into a pert beauty and is the object of gossip by the local women, who call her good-for-nothing. She too is enamoured of Grenicheux.