Felix Krull, the son of a bankrupt sparkling wine manufacturer, reflects on his life and writes his confessions, a story of his social and erotic successes. He shares with the reader the delightful feeling of being at his nurse's breast, the satisfaction of repeatedly stealing chocolate in his childhood, and the theft from his loved ones. The world wants to be deceived, he believes - and he deceives it. The most significant change in his life is his role reversal with the Marquis de Venosta. Equipped with the papers, the fortune, and the name of the Marquis, the former hotel page finds the doors to society open to him, which he knows how to exploit for his own benefit.