Nouveau riche Isidore Lechat, who lives in a castle in the south of France, believes that business is the most important thing, but remains attached to his children. Lechat, who does not let his wife appear at banquets because of her slovenly appearance, begins an affair in Paris with Celeste St. Jean, a friend of his dissolute son Xavier. Lechat offers to pay Xavier's debts if he gets his friend's father, the Minister of War, to lift restrictions on the operation of a mine in French Africa which Lechat optioned.