Hector Loursat, attorney at law, lives with his daughter Nicole in a vast and shabby mansion in this provincial town. They dont talk to each other much, somehow holding the other one responsible for the situation: Hector Loursat used to be one of the great attorneys until his wife left him for another man eighteen years ago. He has been drinking ever since, and given up living altogether, intoxicated every night. Hector did not care much about his daughter, who was brought up by Fine, the old woman servant in the house. One night, gunshots are heard upstairs in the house and Hector spots a shadow running away. Hector goes upstairs with Nicole and finds a dead man lying on an old bed in the attic. The police arrives and investigates. Hector soon finds out his daughter has a kind of secret life with a band of young idle bourgeois from the town: they have regular meetings in the attic. The police soon finds out the dead man is called Gros Louis, with a criminal record. Nicole and her friends are being interrogated by the police. But how is Gros Louis linked to the group? They find out the band of young idle bourgeois have set up in between them a sort of pact, a theft competition which started by stealing a ballpoint or a lighter, and was amplified by boredom up to grand theft auto. They turned delinquants by ennui. The police also finds out that one of them, Emile, is Nicole's boyfriend. Did he kill Gros Louis by jealousy? Emile is suspected, and arrested. In jail, Emile asks Hector Loursat to be his attorney. Hector, scenting a miscarriage of justice, accepts to be his defense attorney.

Loursat, avocat, vit avec sa fille Nicole dans une sinistre et vaste demeure bourgeoise. Abandonne depuis pres de vingt ans par sa femme, le brillant avocat a sombre dans l'acoolisme et ses rapports avec sa fille sont pour ainsi dire inexistants. Or, un jour le cadavre d'un inconu est decouvert dans la demeure de Loursat. Nicole, qui frequente une bande de jeunes gens qui trompent l'ennui en derobant des voitures et autres objets est tout de suite soupconnee. Une parfaite adaptation de Simenon. Le film fut interdit a la Liberation.

DVD-r is in French with switchable English subtitles. Approx. 91 mins. See film sample for audio and video quality!