For 30 years, a widow named Madame Vauquer has run a shabby yet respectable boarding house in an obscure, downscale Paris neighborhood. In the winter of 1819, seven boarders are living there. These include an idealistic young law student named Eugène de Rastignac; a shrunken, elderly pair named Mademoiselle Michonneau and Monsieur Poiret; a disowned young woman named Victorine Taillefer and her guardian, Madame Couture; a mysterious but cheerful man of 40 named Vautrin; and a retired pasta-maker who goes by Père Goriot. Everyone gives Goriot a hard time. He had a successful career, but his fortune shrinks, and his appearance declines within his first couple of years in the Maison Vauquer. When they notice fashionable young women visiting Goriot, the others assume that he’s a rascal who’s squandered his fortune on mistresses.
Rastignac wants to launch a successful law career in order to support his large family, whose estate in the provinces is struggling. He knows that, in addition to his law studies, he must carve a place for himself within Paris society. Accordingly, his aunt arranges an introduction for him with a rich distant cousin named Madame la Vicomtesse de Beauséant. While at the vicomtesse’s ball, Rastignac is drawn to an attractive young woman named Madame Anastasie de Restaud and gets permission to call on her. When Rastignac visits Madame de Restaud, he sees his neighbor Goriot just leaving. But when he mentions “Père Goriot” in the course of an already awkward visit, Rastignac commits an inexplicable offense and leaves in embarrassment.
Discouraged, Rastignac goes to visit Madame de Beauséant and begs for her help in navigating Paris’s bafflingly complex social world. His cousin explains that Madame de Restaud is Goriot’s daughter and that she, along with her sister Madame Delphine de Nucingen, are forbidden by their husbands to see him. Goriot spent his entire fortune ensuring that his daughters could make wealthy, socially advantageous marriages. Afterward, however, his daughters began to see Goriot as a social embarrassment, only visiting him in secret when they need financial help. Madame de Beauséant also advises Rastignac that if he really wants to succeed in society, he must attach himself to a rich young woman but never reveal any genuine emotions; people must be viewed as objects to be used and then abandoned. Delphine de Nucingen is a good candidate because of her desperation for social acceptance. If Rastignac introduces her to Madame de Beauséant, he’ll be favored by Delphine and thus by society at large.
Back at the boarding house, Rastignac’s neighbor Vautrin takes him aside and offers him advice, too. He explains that there are only two choices in life: obedience to society’s ways or revolt. He tells Rastignac that pursuing a career and marriage the conventional way will take decades. If Rastignac really wants to succeed, he should get there the way most people in Paris do: through corruption. He offers to get Rastignac a rich wife in exchange for a portion of the dowry as a commission. He points out that Victorine is in love with Rastignac, and that if her brother were killed off, she would gain a huge inheritance. Vautrin can arrange this. He argues that this approach isn’t morally inferior to the subtler compromises Rastignac will inevitably make as a conventional lawyer. But Rastignac, horrified, rejects the offer.
Later, Rastignac goes to the theater with Madame de Beauséant, and he’s introduced to Madame de Nucingen for the first time. He quickly becomes infatuated with her. He also befriends Goriot, who’s hungry for any news of his neglectful daughters, whom he nevertheless adores from afar. Before long, Rastignac begins receiving invitations to spend time with Delphine de Nucingen. She even uses Rastignac to help her out of financial difficulties—much as she uses her father—by making him win money for her through gambling. She admits to him that most Parisian women, despite outward appearances, are constantly strapped for cash and make all sorts of moral compromises as a result. Despite knowing this, Rastignac gets drawn into Delphine’s luxurious lifestyle more and more, running out of money for basic expenses and neglecting his studies. He also begins to develop genuine feelings for her, though he’d never intended to. Though he continues to find Vautrin’s offer repugnant, he also can’t help flirting with Victorine in his desperation.
Meanwhile, the inconspicuous elderly boarders, Poiret and Mademoiselle Michonneau, are approached by a detective named Monsieur Gondureau, who tells them that Vautrin is actually a criminal mastermind and escaped convict named Jacques Collin, or “Death-Dodger.” He offers a substantial reward in exchange for their cooperation in drugging Vautrin in order to confirm his identity. As this plot is underway, Vautrin puts his own plan in motion, instigating a duel that will lead to the death of Victorine’s brother. Rastignac resolves to warn Victorine’s family that night. However, Vautrin suspects his intentions and drugs Rastignac’s wine so that he falls asleep, missing his chance.
The next morning, Mademoiselle Michonneau drugs Vautrin’s coffee shortly before the boarding house residents learn, to their horror, that Victorine’s brother has been fatally wounded in the duel. After Vautrin drinks his coffee and collapses, Mademoiselle Michonneau and Poirot locate the criminal’s brand on his shoulder, confirming his identity as Death-dodger and tipping off Gondureau’s police force. To the other residents’ shock, Vautrin is arrested that night. Rastignac, shaken by these events, takes comfort in the newly furnished apartment that Delphine and Goriot have provided for him as a surprise. He also secures an invitation to Madame de Beauséant’s upcoming ball for Delphine and promises Goriot a room above his new apartment, allowing him to be close to one of his daughters at last. It seems as if everyone will get what they’ve desired and that things will resolve happily.
While Rastignac and Goriot are preparing to move out of the boarding house, however, Delphine comes to visit Goriot, complaining of financial ruin—her husband is blackmailing her because of her relationship with Rastignac. Anastasie shows up soon afterward, in trouble because she’s pawned the de Restaud diamonds to cover her lover, Maxime’s, massive gambling debts. As the sisters squabble, Goriot realizes that they’re both unhappy and that he’s powerless to fix it; his health begins to collapse. Between the two of them, Rastignac and Goriot spend their last resources to get the sisters out of their difficulties, but by the following night, Goriot has taken to his bed for the last time.
That night, at Madame de Beauséant’s ball, Rastignac tries to convince Delphine to visit her dying father, but she refuses to acknowledge the gravity of the situation. Meanwhile, Madame de Beauséant, humiliated by her lover’s impending marriage (which she’d been in denial about until the day of the ball), decides to leave Paris society altogether and retire to the countryside with her emotional integrity intact. Rastignac bids his cousin a fond goodbye.
The next day, Goriot begins fading rapidly. Rastignac and his friend Bianchon, a good-hearted medical student, take turns nursing the old man. Rastignac begs both Delphine and Anastasie to visit Goriot before it’s too late, but they both offer excuses, confirming that they don’t truly love him. In his final struggle, Goriot laments his daughters’ unfaithfulness, seeming to finally recognize his relationships with them for what they are. However, he dies clutching Rastignac and Bianchon, mistaking them for his daughters, deluded to the last.
Rastignac and Bianchon spend their last francs to ensure a decent burial for Goriot; Goriot’s daughters and sons-in-law offer no help, and they only send their servants to the funeral. After the service, Rastignac walks to the hilltop in the cemetery and overlooks Paris. He recognizes the city’s falsity and corruption, yet at the same time, he’s hungry for the superficial pleasures it has to offer. He then heads off to dine with Delphine, suggesting that he will continue fighting to balance social success with moral integrity.
