Out of love for his adoptive mother, Carl Brenner allows himself to be accused and imprisoned because of an illegal operation carried out by Doctor Stefan Brenner, the legitimate son of Mrs. Brenner. A few years later, Stefan died of alcoholism and Carl made a name for himself under his name.

Around a baby whose paternity is disputed, the members of a bourgeois family are agitated: the irascible father, the whining mother, the modern young girl, the good-for-nothing son, a secretary in love with the young girl, an associate and the importunate old aunt who smooths things over.

A husband, exasperated by his wife, spanks her without paying attention to the open window in front of which he is. He is annoyingly surprised to discover the next day that the scene has been photographed by a neighbor, and that the image is circulating in Paris. A debate then ensues: is this an opportunity to call for revolt or a welcome manifestation of marital authority?

Babinois courts all the women he meets. He has a mistress, Gladys. He would like to marry the Bourillon's daughter, Monique. His maid, Rose, claims to marry him; Héloïse, a young widow, is madly in love with him. Babinois, not knowing how to refuse women anything, promises marriage to all. The fatal day arrives. The four women show up at the town hall in bridal costume and while the other three are doing their buns, Babinois marries Monique.