In the village of Pouldreuzic, lives a baker named Pierrot and a laundress named Columbine. They both dress in white and live opposite one another in identical white houses. Pierrot loves Columbine, but she is a creature of sunshine and daylight, while he is devoted to the night. When not tending his ovens, he is out dancing in the light of the moon. He even looks like the moon, having a round, white, pasty face. Arlequin, an itinerant house painter, is eager to transform blank whitesurfaces with his rainbow hues. Arlequin introduces Columbine to a more colorful life and she runs off with him, leaving Pierrot despondent. Arlequin, however, proves lazy and unreliable. As a heavy snowstorm restores the world to whiteness, Columbine leaves her new love and follows her heart back to Pouldreuzic. In the last scene, she is dozing by Pierrot's oven, while he fashions a life-size image of her in pastry dough. Arlequin comes knocking at the door, and they all sit down to eat the brioche of Columbine.