A neurotic Marxist bank teller quits his job and sets his sights on stealing everything - from tools to a mistress - from one of his former clients, a successful butcher.

Total, a young bank cashier, has been wondering for some time if his life, with its grey, dismal prospects, is worth living. He is aware of the illicit careers and rise to riches of many of his clients. He decide to start a new life: new clothes, new cars, new women. His "new look" begins discreetly with a few small robberies in supermarkets, progressing to more important fraud.