In 1927, at the age of forty-two, Sacha Guitry staged his sixty-fourth play, Désiré.

This time, rather than casting servants “à la Molière”, he chose to don the garb of a valet de chambre to play the title role of his play, the aptly named Désiré.

Odette Cléry, the Postmaster General’s mistress, has recently fired her valet and is preparing to spend the summer with her lover in Deauville.

It’s Désiré who steps in to fill the shoes, after some hesitation on Odette’s part, due to ambiguous certificates.
This is Guitry’s opportunity to explore the world of servants and their relationship with their bosses. Désiré worries about being accepted by his peers first.