 Mathias Pascal (Pierre Blanchar), saddled with a stupid wife and a nagging mother-in-law, leaves home and is extremely lucky at several gambling resorts. He returns home and discovers that a drowned man, fished out of the river, bears an uncanny likeness to him and is being buried by his family as him. This, to him, is a pleasant turn of events and he goes to Rome, where he falls in love with Louise Paleari (Isa Miranda.) Count Papiano (Robert Le Vigan), a jealous suitor of Louise s, threatens him with arrest unless he produces credentials to prove his identity.