Maison Close

The residents of the Paradise are forced to cohabitate with a band of Parisian thugs with highly questionable morals. Facing grave financial difficulties, the brothel must also survive the rise to power of a royalist chief commissioner who marks the return of a Moral Order.

Chief Commissioner Torcy, constantly looking to unseat Mosca from his throne at the Paradise, and suspicious of Mosca's involvement in a major burglary, sends Commissioner Angélus to the brothel to make inquiries. But none of the girls are willing to talk. Meanwhile, Hortense detests Mosca's presence in her territory and yearns to denounce him.

Despite being warned by Kertel, who fears retaliation by the Corentin Brothers, Mosca decides to keep the streetwalkers who were formerly under Corentin's charge on the pavement. Valentine, who dreams of independence, is reunited with Rémi, a small-time criminal who lures her into a trap. Véra, meanwhile, decides to reveal everything to her daughter Jeanne

The prefect reproaches Torcy for the increasing number of prostitutes in the streets and the amount of clean-up to be done immediately. His head is on the chopping block. Not wanting to be outdone by Mosca, the vicious master of the Pigalle streets, known as The Butcher, forces his way into the Paradise, holding the girls hostage

The prefect demands that Torcy restore calm to the streets of Paris, and suggests he find some common ground with Mosca. Thus Torcy proposes to Mosca that he protect the peace at the Paradise and even take control over the streets. Véra wants Jeanne to believe that she was born out of love and that her father was killed in a duel

Mosca and Rose get lost in a world of drugs and sex. So Kertel takes matters into his own hands with the help of Bak. Angéle contracts syphilis but the women of the Paradise refuse to report it and instead decide to treat her on site. Having no idea that Jeanne has been seeing Bak, Véra searches for a furnished apartment to satisfy her daughter's desire for independence.

Torcy oversees the faithful's donations to the Sacred Heart, which add up to a tidy sum. Mosca jumps at the opportunity to strike a fatal blow to the chief commissioner and replenish his coffers at the same time. Meanwhile, the women of the Paradise are worried that Kertel and Bak are trying to overthrow Mosca for control of the streets.