A courtesan ,Cora Pearl, fights a duel with her -female -enemy ,a duel with foils.

Cora Pearl is the mistress of Napoleon the Third 's cousin Jerome.She does not love him but ,as she makes it clear: "you do not know what it is to be hungry".Alas,she falls in love with a Legitimist (a royalist),Philippe De Vaudray.She meets him again in Paris where he is to take part in a conspiracy against the emperor.Lucy De Kaula,jealous of Cora ,informs the police against the plot and tells Philippe who his dear Cora really is.—dbdumonteil