Olponi, an unlucky crook, puts on a sinister act: he simulates a suicide by hanging, hoping this way to garner sympathy and, who knows? to get material and moral support from another man. But Costa, a young con artist, does not fall for it. In these conditions Olponi confesses the whole thing to his young counterpart: he is just a wretched failure with pipe dreams of power and money. Costa then offers to make Olponi a mighty millionaire, master of the universe, under the name of S.M. Alexandre.