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The novel revolves around the contrasting characters of two brothers. Philippe Bridau, the elder, Napoleon's aide-de-camp at the battle of Montereau, had a brief but glorious career in the army before the fall of the Emperor. A handsome and dashing figure, although now with no prospects, he is still more popular than his younger brother, Joseph, a man of less adventurous spirit whom his mother considers a shiftless, good-for-nothing artist. As in other novels in the Comedie humaine, to be without money is to be without power, almost without life itself; and in The Black Sheep it is a struggle to recover the family inheritance that entangles the two young men. In a hostile society in which you must kill to avoid being killed, deceive to avoid being deceived, the true nature of each brother gradually emerges.
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