Charles-Henri Sanson is an executioner in late 18th century France, near the time of the French Revolution. His father and all the men in his family are also executioners. He laments the stress of his job and the lack of public pity for his work. He recounts a time when a woman at an inn where he was dining, upon finding out his profession, demanded that he appear in court to apologize for having shared a dinner table with her. Charles-Henri begins recounting how he had met his wife, Anne-Marie, a market gardener's daughter, and fallen in love with her. Their marriage was possible, he says, because Anne-Marie lacked vanities, and her class was still good enough for his family to be pleased. Commonly, executioners only married and befriended within executioner families. Charles-Henri tells her stories about his job and hopes to gain her sympathy. After the fall of the Bastille, there are plans in the works for the invention of the guillotine to provide a more efficient way to execute the condemned. Charles-Henri is asked to supervise and give feedback on its development. In 1792, the guillotine is used for the first time. In this time, Charles-Henri often comes to his wife to express his feelings of guilt and hesitation. She is his sole confidant. Their youngest, Gabriel, who was also an executioner, recently died on the job. Anne-Marie had laid in her room and refused to talk to her husband for a week. Later, they discuss the isolation of executioners and prejudice against them from society. The Revolution is beginning, and Charles-Henri and Anne-Maire discuss this as well. Charles-Henri has an increasing amount of work these days. The King is to be tried and executed. Anne-Marie begs Charles-Henri to not take part in it. Anne-Marie becomes wraith-like, and gets into a fight with another women while waiting in line for bread.
Then, Anne-Marie finds out that the Queen is being put on trial. She keeps asking Charles-Henri to not be involved. She wants him to leave his job. Every day of the Queen's trial, she asks him what he has decided. He sees no way out of it. On the day of the execution, Anne-Marie disappears. Charles-Henri goes through with the execution. His wife does not return. Charles-Henri reflects on his past and his beloved wife. He expects a letter from her, and thinks she'll even let him come back to her if he renounces his profession. However, Charles-Henri cannot cast off the weight of the profession that was once his father's and family's before him.