The fraudster is the “genius of the century” Georges de Valera from the same family of “bastards” without family or tribe as Goetz (Hero of Sartre’s play “The Devil and God”). He owes nothing to anyone, except perhaps to his parents - one day, “having made a mistake in their calculations,” they brought him into the world. Fate accidentally threw him in France as a child, but here he did not stick either to those in power, at the expense of whom he lives, or to the working people, whom he despises as losers. Georges is a “self-made man” who single-handedly wages war on the whole world, never once wavering in his simple cynical philosophy: everyone is against everyone, everyone for himself in this fire-torn theater that is called life - in a panic either you will trample, or you will be trampled. However, Georges’ war with his neighbors in life and theater is quite domestic and harmless. He does not encroach on any foundations, but simply wants to snatch a more satisfying piece. And this shameless predation is just the predation of the society from which he feeds quite well, unwilling to disguise himself with words. He, a supporter of private property, is embarrassed by the “illogicality” of the tramps who just saved him, not to mention the refusal of an employee of a left-wing newspaper to hand him over to the police. He is for logic - the logic of those for whom the current order of things is sacred. Soon, however, he will learn that this vaunted logic is precisely pure alogism. His artistic nature and ardent imagination fail him, prompting him out of desperation to enter the unusual and shaky ground of politics. Having taken up, instead of the familiar profession of extortionist, a large-scale state-ideological fraud, he very soon finds himself in trouble. Next to the swindlers who work in this field, the “genius of the century” is a mere child.