The narrative follows Maître Alfred L'Ambert, a fashionable Parisian notary noted for his vanity, elegant white cravats, and poor eyesight, whose life is upended when an altercation leaves him with a damaged nose. Episodic scenes blend social satire and comic mishap as he navigates altered appearance, class pretensions, romantic complications, a troublesome cat, a pair of spectacles and the peculiar effects of a head cold. Through brisk characterization and ironic observation, the work lampoons bourgeois manners, the cult of outward refinement, and the small rituals of law, society and the theatre.