These two poigniant tales tell the story of the Soubeyrand family and their desire to, once again, become the most powerful family in their part of Provence. The scheming Papet and Ugolin plot to get the farm which the mild Jean de Florette has inherited. The first story shows how the pair try to win the farm for themselves, with disasterous consequences, and Manon des Sources (Manon of the Springs) follows on a few years later. Manon has now grown up into a beautiful woman, and when she discovers the truth of what happened to her father she plots her revenge.