It centres on personal rivalries and local politics in the fictional village of Clochemerle, inspired by Vaux-en-Beaujolais, in Beaujolais in 1923 and satirises the conflict between Catholics and republicans in the Third Republic.

[1] The story concerns a dispute over the construction of a vespasienne (public urinals) near the village church.

The cartoonist Albert Dubout was subsequently commissioned to create an illustrated version.

Chevallier subsequently wrote two sequels to the work after the Second World War entitled Clochemerle Babylone (1951) and Clochemerle-les-Bains (1963).

Raymond Souplex composed an operetta based on the work in 1944 and a film was produced in 1948.