The screenplay is based on volume 1 of the novel The Curtain Fall (Les Grandes Familles) by Maurice Druon, The Magnates,[1] which won the Prix Goncourt in 1948.

[6] Noël Schoudler is the autocratic head of diversified family enterprises which include a bank, a newspaper and a sugar refinery.

His only son François considers the whole set-up archaic and, while his father is on a business trip to the US, starts jazzing up the staid newspaper.

Feigning helpfulness to François, Maublanc says he will arrange everything with his brokers, but in fact tells them to leak the news that the Schoudler empire has run out of capital.

When the market price starts falling, François is in despair and Maublanc tells him that the only decent thing to do is to put a bullet through his head.