The play, published under the initials E. D., is the first theatrical work of Antoine-François Ève, also known as Ève Demaillot or Maillot. It was written for the Petits Comédiens de Bois de S.A.S Monseigneur le Comte de Beaujolais, a company directed by Delomel and Gardeur that had received the patronage of the count of Beaujolais, son of the Duke of Orléans. This company, which performed in a small room near the Palais-Royal (which later expanded and became the Théâtre des Variétés), first performed with puppets, and gradually introduced children before obtaining permission to completely replace the puppets with children.

Figaro argues with Suzanne, his wife, because he wants to open a puppet theater. He brings his ill daughter, Friquette, to Paris. She recovers thanks to Doctor Fluidas, a neighbor who accompanies her every day to magnetism sessions. She agrees to help her father in his new undertaking, while Suzanne refuses to be convinced. Friquette confesses to her father that she is in love with a young man. She is enamored with L’Enfumé (The Tricked One), a student physicist, whom she has not seen for four days. Upon L’Enfumé’s arrival in the city, Friquette blames him for his absence, but he explains that it is due to his preparation to fly in a balloon that has her name written on it in golden letters. Fluidas announces that doctors have forbidden his magnetism sessions because he is an impostor. After an accident with the balloon he was supposed to fly in, L’Enfumé is robbed of the money left from the subscription that he started for its construction. Figaro convinces everybody to join him in his puppet theater project.