25th August 1944;Paris,free at last !and it's my birthday says jailbird Maurice:he is released from the slammer by resistant fighters but he was actually arrested for stealing a bike five years before . When he returns home ,all is not so rosy.Mother is not prepared to feed him for free at a time when housewives stand in line with their ration card in their hands.So Maurice steals again ,this time a horse called Berlingot (=hard candy),so as to sell steaks on the black market.Helped by his schoolmate Roland,he begins the task.He must first find potential customers :but,down on his luck,he meets policemen ,priests and nymphomaniacs and his future steaks sell poorly.And to kill the horse they have become friends with is too hard..