Hippolyte, the titular oddball, is a far from typical country lawyer. He has been happily married to the woman of his dreams for 15 years, but has an incurable penchant for practical (or rather impractical) jokes.

In this erstwhile comedy, Penelope (Isabelle Adjani) is already sufficiently unsettled by the fact that she is no longer a top model, and must cast around for another occupation. When her boyfriend leaves her, she becomes quite hysterical, conjuring up schemes for revenge, contemplating suicide, and so on. These dramatics eventually exasperate her best friend Sophie (Clementine Celarie) so much that she contemplates killing Penelope, her ex-boyfriend, or the two of them together, just to stop the whining.