In this comedy, the requirements of living a respectable life grow too great for Maurice, as do the burdens of his well-paid executive position. After getting fired when a business proposal he has worked on is translated very badly to his English boss, he confides that he has lost his job to his wife. When she freaks out about that, he gets into his camper and heads south. There, a group of wandering Arab thieves rob him of everything he has of value but then admit him into their circle, calling him "Mohamed." One of their best scams comes when the newly renamed executive proposes that they rob his Paris home to raise money to start a restaurant. Though they are thieves, these new friends show every evidence of having more loyalty, good cheer, and basic morality than the associates the hero left behind.

Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.