Charles, the snobbish young scion of an aristocratic family that has seen better days, stumbles into the weird yet strangely attractive cabaret world while attempting to trace a former mistress of his father. He falls in love with Clémentine, an adolescent member of the cabaret “family” who has created her own tango-obsessed fantasy world amidst the surrounding decadence. Charles, learning that Clémentine might be his half-sister, and thus fearing an incestuous relationship, succumbs to the ambiguous seductions of two Machiavellian accomplices, a magician and a girl dancer.