Paris, February 1817, three years after the fall of the Empire, the confessed Derville receives the visit of an elderly man miserably dressed. He assures himself to be Colonel Chabert, left for dead at the Battle of Eylau in 1807. He had then contributed to the victory by leading a cavalry charge that became famous. The old man recounts how, waking up in a ditch between corpses, he survived his injuries. He returns ten years later and wishes to claim his title, assert his rights, and live again with his wife. She, during his absence, married the Count Ferraud. The count seeks to acquire the title of a French peer, which would allow him to launch his political career in the Chamber of Peers. But his marriage to an imperial widow creates apparently insurmountable difficulties; he would be better off remarrying with the daughter of an exiled nobility. Countess Ferraud pushes Chabert away, refusing to recognize her first husband. Derville, although also the confessed of Countess Ferraud, then agrees to help the colonel by proposing a transaction to his ex-wife. She refuses and instead tries to manipulate her ex-husband. Chabert is not fooled, and disgusted by the corruption of men, he falls into madness and misanthropy, ending the divorce/resurrection procedure that he had so long pursued. Rejected by his wife, convicted of vagabondage, Colonel Chabert ends his miserable life in an asylum. His lawyer vindicates him by explaining to Count Ferraud that he finally has a reason to break his marriage with his wife.