Louis Coline, marié avec Nina, est employé dans le service publicité d'un grand magasin parisien. Un matin, on annonce un plan social et le rachat du groupe par Bertrand Malair, un homme d'affaires important et respecté. Ce dernier arrive de façon très discrète et se montre relativement mystérieux et laconique. Il entre en contact avec Louis, qu'il décide de garder et même de gratifier d'une promotion de chef de la publicité du magasin. De plus en plus invasif, Bertrand s'impose dans la vie privée de Louis...
Louis Coline (Gérard Lanvin) is an executive assistant in a declining Paris department store. While he is not ambitious and has little to do, he is content with his wife Nina (Nathalie Baye), visits to his mother and grandmother and nights out with his friends playing poker. However, the manipulative Bertrand Malair (Michel Piccoli) becomes the store's new manager, and arrives to shake up the company. Louis fears for his job, but Bertrand draws him into his inner circle of confidants. Bertrand starts to control Louis' life, while Louis is afraid of losing his privileged position. To maintain it Louis works overtime, accepts Bertrand's invitations to nightclubs and dinners with an androgynous woman, and places his house at Bertrand's disposal. Nina sees through her husband's behaviour and objects, but Louis cannot refuse Bertrand's demands, and she is unable to make him see how much his personality has changed. Desperate, she leaves her husband, which only draws him further under Bertrand's control. Bertrand soon disappears as mysteriously as he came, and Louis finds himself unable to revert to his previous self.
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