[1] The story is told in the first person by a young writer named Louis Lambert.

Jacques was a young man who liked to drink and gamble, and had one day stolen a gold coin which his mother had sewn into a quilt.

His father discovered this, and punished the son by tying him up, and throwing him into the sea.

Pierre in his grief left his home, and eventually settled in the cave by the sea.

[2] The story was adapted into a French 1920 silent movie directed by Marcel L'Herbier called L'Homme du large.