Overview

Cut-throat and drunkard, pickpocket and braggart - Francois Villon is all of these. But he is also a poet and a Romantic and he is adored by the rabble of Louis XI's Paris, which is ringed by the armies of the rebellious Burgundians. Katherine de Vaucelles has recieved poems from Villon, not knowing his identity. She has rejected the advances of Louis, and has gone to an inn to discover more about her unknown admirer. To revenge himself on Katherine the King brings Villon to court and offers him twenty four hours to prove himself. by the following dawn he must have won the hand of Katherine or the hang-man's noose will be round his neck. Huguette, a harlot Guy Taberie, afat fool are among those who join in Villon,subsequent adventures. Both offer their lives in his place and one of them is to die before Burgundy is routed and Villon reprieved on the steps of the gallows.