An innocent little love note written by Louise de Merival before her marriage is the pivot on which this vivacious comedy turns. Cousins Prosper and Anatole love the daughters of Madame de Merival, but Maman has other plans. She spirits the girls off to Paris, where Louise soon forgets Prosper and marries a baron. But Mathilda is true to Anatole. The girls' cousin Suzanne conspires with Louise to get back the note from Prosper. She searches his rooms and, when the baron follows Louise there, she saves her cousin by trumping up an old love affair with Prosper; the baron calls Prosper a scoundrel and tells him he must marry Suzanne on pain of death. Anatole and Mathilde are unwittingly drawn into the whirlpool of circumstances which revolves about a scrap of paper.