Raised in a brothel, then wrested from the only life she knew by her father, so they could join the circus, Edith Piaf spent her teen years on the streets. She is finally "rescued" by a crime figure who gives her career a start and, ultimately, by her international success and final illness. Always frail, sickly, malnourished, and wildly temperamental, she was often on drugs or alcohol and was always in search of true love. Middleweight boxer, Marcel Cerdan, captures her heart and gives her something to live for, besides her music--at least for a while.