Arthur Narone is desperate to forget one awful episode from his sorry, post-war orphan's childhood, but he simply cannot. Perhaps that is why he has taken to late-night joyriding around the streets and hillsides of Nice in expensive borrowed cars. But that largely harmless pastime has got him into far greater trouble than a caution or two from the local gendarmerie. Arthur has been talent-spotted by the lowest of the Riviera underworld, and he is made an "offer he can't refuse" by the similarly press-ganged leader of a makeshift bunch of putative bank robbers. The "encouragement" for his co-operation consists largely of dire threats to the well-being of his girlfriend Emilie, cabaret musician extraordinaire. He decides not to burden her with his latest troubles, but when the robbery goes all wrong she is dragged unwittingly into the dangerous aftermath ...