Trouble in Paradise

In Venice, Lily, a Countess, and Baron Gaston Monescu, a gentleman, fall in love. That love is despite each masquerading in these identities in they truly being a pickpocket and thief respectively, each who was in the process of fleecing the other. And that love is only strengthened when each discovers the true nature of the other, they who decide to go into the business of crime together. Moving onto Paris, Gaston commits a theft against wealthy and somewhat flighty widow Mariette Colet, who owns her own perfumery. With Mariette offering a reward much more than what Gaston could get fencing the stolen item, he returns it for the reward under an assumed name, and in the process of demonstrating his knowledge of the business world and finance, she hires him to be his personal secretary. With Lily further "hired" to act as his stenographer, Gaston and Lily decide that they can steal hundreds of thousands of francs from Mariette before moving on to their next target. Complications arise from this situation. First, Gaston discovers that someone else is after Mariette's money in as equally an underhanded way as him and Lily. Second, two of the most persistent and unsuccessful of Mariette's suitors are "The Major" and Francois Filiba, the latter who Gaston robbed in a con in Venice and who could probably identify both Lily and especially Gaston if he would only think hard enough. And third, Mariette falls for Gaston, who has to decide if being a one woman gigolo is a better life than that of Lily's partner in crime and love, that is unless he has fallen in love with Mariette in return.