Guillaume de Burlador is a private tutor who hits a low point sufficiently severe for him to contemplate a somewhat theatrical suicide. Instead he is taken off by flying boat to a mad French colonial possession bedecked by mad servants and crazy decor. Three educated and rather gorgeous women live there, and they hire him to tutor a young teenager, but more with plans to seduce him in mind.

Six friends start playing music under the name of Forbans, firmly determined to succeed. They soon find themselves in Martinique, embroiled in a series of abracadabre adventures.