When petty thief Olivier (Gerard Depardieu) breaks into an apartment and unexpectedly stumbles into an S and M dungeon, he's stunned. But even more surprising, when he meets Ariane, the dominatrix (Bulle Ogier) who owns the flat, the two hit it off. Soon, the mismatched couple is going at it full swing, with the sexually assertive Ariane schooling her new friend in the ins and outs of her kinky profession.