Young Paul and little Virginia are madly in love with each other, they get married. The narrator, a scientist whose pupil is Paul, goes abroad. He came back 3 years later and learned that Virginie had died and Paul was confined in his castle. He hastened to find the latter: he did not seem upset, to his great amazement. In fact, Paul locks himself in for hours, and with the help of the incredible memory that nature has endowed him with, revives Virginie...