Part one: Manon of the Spring In a small Provençal village,
gendarmes search for Manon, a young woman who lives with her ailing mother in the surrounding hills, where she scrapes out a living by herding goats and poaching. The Mayor and a group of locals explain Manon's story to the village's young and recently arrived schoolteacher. Manon is the daughter of a hunchbacked farmer who died two years earlier: she is nicknamed "Manon of the
springs" after her father, known as "the hunchback of the springs" because he kept looking in vain for springs that would irrigate his land, using a
dowsing rod. The hunchback was considered a foreigner in the village, even though he was the son of Florette, a local woman, who had later left to marry a man from another village. Her son eventually came to the village after inheriting there a farm from his uncle. Several villagers comment that the hunchback was the victim of an injustice, and that this may have been averted if they had known at the time that he was Florette's son and was therefore "from the village" on his mother's side. Le Papet ('the grandfather'), the surly village elder who as a young man had unsuccessfully proposed to Florette, argues that since she had married outside the village, she was "no longer from around here" and that marrying a stranger is what caused her son to be hunchbacked. After the hunchback died, his land was bought by a local farmer, Ugolin. Manon is disliked by the local women, who accuse her of being a witch. In the heights, Manon encounters a friend of hers, an old woman called Baptistine, who is casting a curse on the village because her husband's grave was removed for administrative reasons. Manon is arrested and brought to the village. She is accused of wounding a young man, Polyte, and of stealing melons from Ugolin's farm. The chief gendarme improvises an informal public trial to determine whether she can be charged. The schoolteacher stands up for Manon whom he calls a victim of bigotry and superstition. Manon explains that Polyte tried to sexually assault her, so she fought him back. Ugolin also defends Manon and says that he gave the melons to her. Manon is let free. The villagers prepare the local celebration, the feast of the fountain. Manon goes back to the hills. She is reunited with Baptistine, who shows her where and how to carry out her revenge and says: “Now that you have seen, do whatever you want!”. Manon later befriends the schoolteacher. During their conversation, she expresses dislike for the villagers. She also tells him that when she was a child she, her brother, and their parents had to walk miles each day to get water to irrigate their farm. Ugolin later bought the farm and found a spring on the land right away. Manon mentions the curse cast by Baptistine: the schoolteacher scoffs at this, but she implies that catastrophe could befall on the village. Shortly after Manon leaves the schoolteacher, she meets Ugolin in the hills. Ugolin awkwardly starts a conversation, then declares his love to Manon. She rebuffs him and walks away, as he keeps shouting out his love, saying that he will inherit from his uncle Le Papet and promising that everything he owns can also be hers. As she leaves, she jokes that he would be more handsome if he shaved his moustache, which he takes seriously. Manon later emerges from a crevice in a steep hillside, carrying tools and a pickaxe. The next day, Manon gets back to the village as the feast of the fountain starts. Ugolin, who is present, has shaved his moustache. The fountain's flow suddenly stops: the spring that irrigates the whole village has dried up. Faced with being deprived of water for their farms and themselves, the villagers begin to panic.
Part two: Ugolin A rural engineer tries to determine why the spring dried up, but has no clues. He advises the villagers to get water from a tanker truck, or to leave the village altogether. Manon later observes Ugolin in the heights, as he prays in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary, begging her to bring back the water and admitting that he did something evil. The next day, during his sermon at mass, the priest suggests that the village may be punished by God because someone committed a misdeed; he says that those who know of an injustice and do nothing about it are equally guilty, and urges all the villagers to examine their conscience. He announces that a procession in
Saint Dominic's honor will be held, to invoke the Lord and pray for the water's return. After mass, the schoolteacher reminds Manon of their earlier conversation where she had said that a disaster could occur; she answers: "You know very well that I'm a bit of a witch!" and mentions that she plans to leave the village. He asks her to come to the meeting that will be held at his home. Later the same day, a group of villagers meet in the schoolteacher's garden to address the situation. They soon imply that Ugolin is responsible. Manon joins the conversation and openly accuses Ugolin, who denies any wrongdoing. Several men admit that everyone in the village had guessed that Ugolin had somehow tricked the hunchback. Only Le Papet supports his nephew Ugolin. Manon then reveals that Ugolin had plugged the only spring that irrigated her family's farm. To try and save the farm, her father had to go into debt with Ugolin, allowing him to later become the farm's owner. Ugolin asserts that he was honest to the hunchback and merely helped him out by lending him money. Manon's claims are supported by Eliacin, a younger villager who, as a child, saw Ugolin plug the spring with cement he had stolen from his father. Manon reminds how her family was driven to poverty and desperation by Ugolin's misdeed, as no one in the village helped nor warned them: her brother, Paul, died of poisoning after drinking unsafe water from a cistern, her father later died of heartbreak and her mother went insane. Without confessing outright, Ugolin implies that he has been tortured for years by remorse, and that he wants to give everything back to Manon by marrying her. He kneels before Manon and pleads his love for her; she rejects him in disgust. As everyone turns against him, Ugolin keeps protesting his innocence; when asked to swear on the Gospel, he refuses, then flees in disgrace. A delirious Ugolin wanders through the hills; he has visions of the hunchback and his family as they carried water for their farm. The villagers decide to visit Ugolin so he can formalize the restitution of the farm to Manon. After getting to Ugolin's home, they find his written confession, then Ugolin himself who has committed suicide by hanging. The villagers visit Manon to inform her that Ugolin is dead and that he has transferred the farm to her by will. They ask her to come to the procession. The schoolteacher later talks to Manon and persuades her to renounce her vengeance against the village. They both go to the crevice and unplug the spring. The next day, during the procession, the fountain starts giving off water again. The priest praises the Lord for this miracle. Later on, Manon sells Ugolin's carnation harvest to another farmer. After realizing that the farm will make her wealthy, she discusses her future with the schoolteacher; she says she will use the money to give her father a proper tomb, and to care for her mother. Their conversation is interrupted by the Mayor who has come to propose that the villagers renovate the old presbytery for Manon to live in; he leaves upon realizing that he is intruding. The schoolteacher declares his love to Manon. ==Cast==