Le rêve

In the snow as bells toll, a hooded figure makes its way through the streets to a church.It is a small child ,and a woman opening up her window across onto the scene comes out to help and bring the child into her home. Inside, the little girl tries to run out again, but the woman and a man joining her offer a bowl of cafe au lait.As the girl rests her head on the table to sleep she drops a booklet which gives some of her history that she later talks about.She had been beaten and doesn't want to be returned to where she was. Ten years after.Angelique the girl works in a church abbey as an embroiderer with her mother.She talks of the dead returning to life. The scene changes to the exterior of the nearby castle where the family is eating.Angelique's adopted parents tell her about the manor, Hautecoeur, and a legend when people were cured of a plague by the local saint. Angelique sings in the church choir, when the lord of the manor, who is also the bishop, visits. Next we see her washing linen in a river, she has a young admirer who is in the nearby woods.Distracted, she lets the garment slip but he comes to help her retrieve it.He is Felicien and tells her that, as an artist, he has been hired to repair the stained glass church windows. She hangs up the garments to dry. Talking later to her mother, Angelique shares her dream of marrying a rich prince like the one who is the bishop's son .(The manor lord had been heartbroken when the mother died and went into the church.) The mother advises her that would be impossible. Angelique looks in the evening at an illustrated book about a Golden Legend and sees Felicien outside by the window, he comes up to her balcony but she tells him to leave. He will continue to look at her but will not talk to her for a month. After which he returns and says he wants to tell her who he really is.They will meet again tomorrow.She prays. A procession leaves the church, singing the Gloria. Angelique hears another girl identifying Felicien as the son of the manor and embraces her mother in happiness. She meets him later by the river.As bells toll, the mother paces. Felicien tells Angelique he had also been abandoned by his father and had grown up poor, he has just now returned. She talks of their marriage but the mother, doubtful once again, comes out to her and later tells her in the room that the son is destined to marry someone else. Felicien asks his father about marrying Angelique and is refused. The abbey comes to see her mother and Angelique hears them from the stairs as we see their silhouettes. Angelique goes to the church, where she introduces herself to the bishop after he comes to the altar.She begs him about the marriage and calls after him. Angelique is back at the river doing washing with her mother and another woman.Hearing of Felicien's impending marriage to another woman, she lets a garment drift off again, and collapses. The doctor visits and Felicien also comes to see her .She is in weakened condition and can't go with him but her mother comforts her. She is now dying.The abbey visits to bless her as others gather by the bed and the bishop recites the Our Father.After he kisses her forehead she sits up. We see sculptured figures at the church as Angelique and Felicien are finally wed by the bishop and they are led out by a group of children.In one of the film's few close shots, we see the newlyweds kiss. But Angelique's last dream has not yet come true.Until we see a figure representing her spirit ascending, after her immediate death, into the skies.