An English language remake of the movie was made in 1994 with Gérard Depardieu reprising his role.

The name of the film comes from a famous poem by the French poet Victor Hugo, "Mon père, ce héros," published in 1859.

André (Gérard Depardieu), a Frenchman who is divorced from his wife, takes his beautiful 14-year-old daughter, Véronique (Marie Gillain), on vacation to a paradise island.

In order to impress a local boy, Benjamin (Patrick Mille), she makes up more and more fantastic stories, starting with André being her lover – a sugar Daddy.

André is desperate to make Véronique happy and so plays along with her increasingly elaborate invented stories about her life.