Follenfant, father of a large family, completed late military service. He looks a lot like the commander who is shy and thanks to this resemblance, Follenfant who is also a ventriloquist, makes his superior and his own happy by marrying the widowed seamstress and mother, too, of a large family.

The gratuitous murder of his father and the misery of the people, aggravated by a succession of bad harvests, lead Gaspard, a great admirer of Mandrin and blacksmith by profession, to revolt. With his companion Samplan, he finds himself at the head of a handful of soldiers dissatisfied with their fate and a band of brigands. They steal money from the rich to give it to the poor, like highwaymen, vindicators with a big heart. In their eyes, things cannot go on like this, in this country which seems given over to the decadence of the nobility and the whims of an indolent king. Gaspard and his troupe are responsible for making it known.

Leopoldo Quintana is a lawyer who, determined to reach power and capable of anything to get what he wants, uses blackmail and shady maneuvers to be appointed congressman for the Balearic Islands, then minister, and finally President of the Council of Ministers of the Spanish Government.