A very shy lawyer, Fremissin, is tasked with defending Garadoux, a man charged rightfully with beating his wife. Fremissin gets nervous at the trial, and ends up demanding the harshest possible sentence for Garadoux, making him spend several months in prison. After a few years, Fremissin has fallen in love with a woman (Cecile Thibaudier). Garadoux sees this and tries to seduce her to get back at Fremissin for getting him sent to prison. Garadoux abuses Fremissin's timid nature, in hilarious acts like posing as a bandit and leaving him disturbing notes telling him not to leave home. Based on the 1860 play Les Deux Timides by Eugène Labiche, the last silent film directed by René Clair before Under the Roofs of Paris (1930).
