Guillaume de Burlador is a private tutor who hits a low point sufficiently severe for him to contemplate a somewhat theatrical suicide. Instead he is taken off by flying boat to a mad French colonial possession bedecked by mad servants and crazy decor. Three educated and rather gorgeous women live there, and they hire him to tutor a young teenager, but more with plans to seduce him in mind.

An old and poor couple, Charles and Lucie, scrape by working as a concierge and an untalented antique dealer, respectively. But one day, their dreary daily routine is disrupted by the surprising news that they have inherited a luxurious house in the South of France.

在日内瓦，书商兼出版商阿克塞尔·索普（Axel Thorpe）抓到了16岁的西比尔·阿什比（Sibylle Ashby）在商店行窃。她吹嘘自己的写作，所以他要求她写一本书。她写了一部色情小说，索普匿名出版，并成为畅销书。她还试图捕捉这位40岁的出版商的爱。当他为了她的姐姐抛弃她时，她应该寻求报复还是夺回？在次要情节中，她与姐姐和父亲相处得很糟糕，她鼓励母亲与父亲的姐姐有染。除了意志坚定的西比尔，阿克塞尔也有问题：他必须接受多年前母亲溺水身亡的事实。