In 1830, in Paris, a private investigator, Eugène François Vidocq, is pursuing a man, who is masked with a mirror, throughout the city. The chase eventually leads them to a glass factory. The masked man lures Vidocq into a furnace room and, after a brief struggle, manages to push him into the furnace. Hanging onto the ledge, Vidocq asks him to reveal his face. The masked man obliges, and Vidocq lets go of the ledge, falling into the fire.