Fred Peloux, nicknamed Chéri, the handsome son of Charlotte Peloux, a former demimondaine, lives in the small circle of his mother's friends, all high-class prostitutes past their best. He has an affair with Léa, a waning beauty, who loves him both as a mistress and a mother. But the age difference takes its toll on their union. To please his mother, Chéri accepts to marry young Edmée without actually caring for her. After a while, the young man tries to return to Léa...

Marguerite secretly loves a novelist whose face no one knows. The jealous husband sets up a scheme by asking an actor friend to play the novelist and behave in an execrable way in order to disgust his wife. But things never turn out the way you think they will.