Johnny and Banty come in contact with a cattlemen's protective organization. Ostensibly an honest venture, the association is the front for an extortion racket, headed by a gent named Carson.
Childhood friends move up the economic ladder from slumrat to middle class comfort, but the marriage between two of them is threatened by a bad woman from a nightclub.
Around 1750, in the Dauphiné not far from the Swiss border, a cooper, tired of the injustices affecting the peasants crushed by taxes, went into revolt.
Avary, himself a hustler, is jealous of his beautiful wife. He eavesdrops to catch Vilma, his wife, having supper with a neighbour on the terrace of their manor-house.