Upon returning home after a ten year absence, a Colonel in Napoleon's army discovers that his wife has remarried and has used his pension to amass great wealth.

Colonel Chabert has been severely wounded in the French-Russian Napoleonic war to the point that the medical examiner has signed his death certificate. When he regains his health and memory, he goes back to Paris, where his "widow", Anne has married the Count Ferraud and is financing his rise to power using Chabert's money. Chabert hires a lawyer to help him get back his money and his honor.—Dragomir R. Radev <radev@cs.columbia.edu>