Cheik Argaz Al Mokrani, a penniless Algerian aristocrat who has become the steward and factotum of Stanislas Scorbiac, his war companion, is full of goodness, although he is a sort of poor relative living in Stanislas Scorbiac's shadow. Hermine, Stanislas Scorbiac's wife, perceives in this strange being a kind of mystery. As handyman, thrifty and omnipresent, he was able to save the couple's financial situation when the husband ruined himself gambling. Deeply devoted to his former comrade-in-arms who saved his life and taken by a passion as absolute as it was perfectly secret and platonic for his wife, the Cheik Argaz Al Mokrani will not hesitate, to divert from him the feeling that he feels being born in Hermine Scorbiac, to set up a whole stratagem to make her believe that he has for mistress a dancer of the Crazy Horse.

Toujours calmer ce feu qui court is a free adaptation of Honoré de Balzac's novel "La Fausse maîtresse".