Right from the expository scene, Dénis Valentin – the playwright – places his character in an ideal setting for unexpected developments: that is, a haunted house. His play is also a nod to L’Auberge des Adrets (1823), a famous melodrama which saw the birth of Robert Macaire – a flamboyant bandit and swindler. The character was created by great actor Frédéric Lemaître. Dénis Valentin even named the supposedly haunted inn “L’Auberge des Adrets”. He made use of several literary modes – ranging from the horror to the farcical. He also played with theatrical conventions, including that of the theatre within the theatre, as well as with the nascent conventions of the cinema (more particularly of outlaws and horror films, for which Gnafron and Cadet rehearse a scene).

Guignol’s aunt has recently died. She has left him “L’Auberge des Adrets”, a dilapidated inn set remotely in the mountains. Guignol’s cousin, Martin, is staying there and waiting for Guignol to arrive, but he is uneasy: it is rumoured that the building is haunted, and a hiding place for outlaws on the run. Guignol arrives on Christmas Eve and Martin returns to the village. While Guignol inspects the place, Gnafron and Cadet walk into the inn – unbeknown to Guignol. The two friends have come to rehearse a horror scene for a film on a thieving gang that used to steal from isolated houses and kill their residents. Guignol tries to sleep on an old mattress, but he is repeatedly bothered – by a mouse, a spider, a cat, then two snakes, all living in the shack. Gnafron and Cadet rehearse the scene in which they kill the innkeeper. Guignol hears them and believes that they want to murder him. In the dark, he then pretends to be a ghost, to scare them away. Gnafron and Cadet are scared at first, but they finally recognise their friend Guignol. The three of them make a toast and wish one another a merry Christmas.