Respected banker Karel Brand is seen as a marketable emblem of probity. When he loses 350,000 guilders, his reputation is tarnished – without the respect attached to it, he loses his job. Brand becomes unemployable, and his creditors suddenly start calling in their debts. His young daughter Willy suffers the same fate.

Willy, the son of baron Van Hergershuizen, finds himself disinherited after he marries an untitled girl. His wife decides to take action and applies for the job of the baron's housekeeper.

When Jacques, the ladies' tailor of fashion house "The Four Seasons", wins 100,000 guilders in the lottery, his world is suddenly full of opportunity. Shop owner Madame Georgette, however, tries to trick him into signing a rather unfavourable contract.