Baptiste Bebel Lavalle and his classmates in Versailles private high-school Louis XIV enjoy their carefree life enough to deliberately fail the exams, a national record of zero graduating pupils. Permissive headmaster Léon Jumaucourts bitchy wife Lucie takes charge, determined to make them pass. Shes no match for Bebels tricks, despite cruel abuse, but the gang also annoys the public, including the dumb police commissioner. After a mix-up between their bomb-alert prop and a real terrorist groups African embassy attack, Bebels bunch is condemned to pass their exams or go to jail, and the commissioner, charged with supervision, is in no mood to let them off easily.