Papa Chibou is a night watchman at the Museum Pratoucy, the World of Wax. He adores his job, and chats every night with the wax figures whom he loves so dearly. His favorite is Napoleon, and he dusts the figure with special care. Papa Chibou is a bachelor but a romantic, and he begins to spy on a young couple who ooften neet at the wax museum—a slender young French boy and an American girl with bright, dark eyes. He doesn't know who they are, but he is invested in their relationship. Then, one day, things go terribly wrong—they are supposed to meet so that the girl can give him her answer to his question of marriage, but she doesn't show up, and the boy leaves, pale and stricken. The next day, she is there, but he doesn't show, and Papa Chibou is compelled to tell her that he was there yesterday. She gives him a note to pass on to the boy if he ever comes back, as she is being taken to Italy by her rich aunt to be married off to a count. Papa Chibou does not see the young man for many months, and then one day the museum closes—bankrupt. The wax figures are to be auctioned off, and Papa Chibou tries to buy Napoleon, but is outbid. He steals Napoleon that night instead, but is found promptly and arrested. At his trial, he sees the young man, who has been appointed to be his lawyer, and is rumored to be a terrible lawyer at that. Though the man looks drawn and listless now, he seems to come back to life when Papa Chibou gives him the note from the girl and explains it all. He suddenly gives an eloquent speech that brings tears to even the usually harsh judges' eyes, and gets Papa Chibou acquitted. The lawyer and the American girl get married and live happily just outside Paris. The lawyer becomes one of the most promising young lawyers in the city. Papa Chibou lives in a tiny gatehouse with them and Napoleon for company, and tends to asparagus beds all day, which was his dream before he was hired at the wax museum.