In Vendée, a little boy, Paul Guillet, is abandoned by his mother who places him in public assistance. He will go from host family to host family, these various experiences gradually shaping his personality. Graine d'ortie is a French television series in twenty-six thirteen-minute episodes, broadcast from June 1, 1973 on the first ORTF channel. It is also the title of the autobiographical novel by Paul Wagner from which the television series is inspired. In Quebec, it was broadcast from September 1, 1974 on Télévision de Radio-Canada, and rebroadcast from December 14, 1986 on TVJQ.
This historic mini-series is set just after the execution of Louis XVI and follows the actions of a group of loyal royalists, led by the Chevalier de Maison-Rouge. His goal is to free Queen Marie-Antoinette and the young King Louis XVII, but he runs into the brutal jailer Simon who makes sure to thwart any attempt to escape.
A secondary plot line deals with the feelings of Lindet, the lieutenant of the national guard, towards Geneviève, the young protege of the royalist Morand, which for the sans-culottes is a crime in itself.