Lake Como, September 1906. Aristocrats enjoying a vacation beside the lake in a luxury hotel must welcome into their midst Madame Solario. Young and beautiful but also bankrupt and divorced, she will be surprised by the unplanned arrival of her brother, Eugène Ardent, whom she hasn't seen for years. Brother and sister soon become aware of the effect they have the wealthy people of the select little world they now inhabit. They hence try to seduce several of them so as to improve their own personal situations. But their dark past catches up with them and creates a scandal, obliging them to flee.