The young Frenchman Jean Monnier, despite his age, holds a position at the New York office of the Holmann Bank. Everything would therefore be going for the best in the best of all possible worlds, if he did not learn, in quick succession on the very same day, first that he is ruined, and second that his wife Fanny has just left him. Enough to make one wish to put an end to it all and leave this vale of tears as quickly as possible.