Baptiste Lachaud, known affectionately as Tistin, is the only man in the village of Clochemerle not to have a job. With the help of the local mayor, he gets himself registered as unemployed, so that not only can he carry on doing nothing but he will also be paid for doing so. Understandably, the villagers do not take kindly to this development, and are even more outraged when Tistin uses his easily earned money to get drunk in the company of Zozotte, a woman of bad reputation. To redeem himself, Tistin begins to undertake odd jobs for his neighbours, particularly, Jeannette, a young widow who soon develops a fondness for him. But then some money goes missing from the church and Tistin is the obvious culprit, since he has just deposited a large sum of money into a new bank account...