Summary

Maroîs, the fairground bon vivant, spends most of his time around a bottle of wine, in the company of his friend Michaux, with whom he was once a sailor. He neglects his wife Monique, a pretty girl much younger than himself. Suffering from this indifference, she seeks imperfect and fleeting consolation, first from Michel, their friend's son, then from Jean-Louis, a young mechanic who has helped out with Maroîs' truck and won his trusting friendship. Michel, jealous, tells the showman of his misfortune. He leaves to kill his wife's lover. The latter, wishing to separate the antagonists, seriously burns herself by knocking over an autogenous welding block, which explodes. Taken to hospital, she asks for and receives her husband's forgiveness.