In Belle Époque Paris, Gabrielle, after years of family happiness, begins to doubt the loyalty of her husband, Victor-Emmanuel, and confides her concerns to her old friend Lucien. The comedy begins to unfold when Gabrielle and Lucien, in order to test Victor, write him a letter, arranging an appointment at a dubious hotel. What they do not know is that the usually drunk Posse, Victor's double, works as a doorman at the same hotel. When all the heroes of the play arrive at the hotel, each for their own reasons, the fuse of the farce is ignited...

Jenny Petromichali is a widow who has just turned forty, but everyone keeps telling her that she is "forty and...". A flirtatious young woman, she falls in love with a charming but poor violinist and comes face to face with her brothers, who want to marry her off to the elderly George Hatzithomas, a rich but deaf shipowner. Jenny's love affair is a scandal for the morals of the time and her social class...