Three little criminals get a tip for a great coup with lots of money in it. Unfortunately they lack the starting funds to buy the required welding torch. So they persuade their successful colleague Alphonse to join their team. But the well thought-out coup fails, and Alphonse is the only one of them who ends up in jail for several years. When he's released, he's out for revenge.

Three French thieves--Edmond, Arthur and Rouquemoute--make plans to rob a money-lending establishment situated next door to a funeral parlor. Needing money for a blowtorch, they bring in Alphonse, a former boxer now dealing in stolen art, by exaggerating the potential gain. He raises the necessary cash by selling a Braque to a sly fence named Tonton. The robbery, however, is a dismal failure and Alphonse is captured as his cronies make off in the getaway car. Rather than be branded a stool pigeon, Alphonse serves a 5-year prison term only to discover that the three thieves have looted his apartment of everything of any value. When he is released, he sets a plan of revenge into action and eliminates his double-crossing pals. Before Rouquemoute dies, he confesses that Tonton was behind the robbery of Alphonse's apartment. Already in love with Tonton's girl friend Catherine, Alphonse now makes plans to take over both Tonton's art gallery and girl. But Catherine proves to be the best of the cloportes : she shoots Tonton, makes Alphonse appear to be guilty, sees him taken to jail, and then settles down to enjoy the fruits of her work.