Anatole, quivering nostrils and greedy lips, is the resourceful clerk of Mrs. Paufilat, a butcher. It takes a fancy to take on the identity of the Paufilat son, Paul. He must then undergo the assaults of the tumultuous Germaine, exhilarated by the money of Paul Paufilat.
Monsieur Vincent is the respected healer of a Basque village. But nobody knows that Vincent Berteaux used to be a surgeon in Paris. When Assomption, a young holidaymaker, arrives in the village in the company of her mother, little does Vincent know that the past returns to his life.
A father falls in love with his son's mistress whom he has forced to emigrate to force him to break up. More carefree than a schoolboy, he ruins himself for the beauty who soon chases him away. The family will soon be reunited permanently.