Cohn, a tubby ex-Parisian and chronic liar, has robbed, swindled or just plain annoyed most of the population of Tahiti and yet, quite literally, cannot get arrested. American scholar Jack Baker arrives to write the umpteenth book on the painter Paul Gauguin and is drawn in by the rumor that con man Cohn owns an authentic Gauguin canvas. The two men form an adversarial relationship that ripens into complicitous friendship once Baker discovers Cohn's true identity.