Part One, "The Last Christmas Dinner," is about the relationship between an old man and an old woman, both homeless. Part Two, "The Electric Floor Polisher," is an opera-like story of a woman who is obsessed with polishing her floors. Part Three is a musical interlude featuring Jeanne Moreau singing "When Love Dies." Part Four, "The Virtue of Tolerance," concerns an old man, his young wife, and how they come to terms when she has an affair with a man her own age.
This French slapstick comedy stars the musician/comedian foursome Les Charlots, as valets to the Four Musketeers. One of the film's highlights is a mutual kicking session between Cardinal Richelieu, the King, and a monk. This comedy foursome was enormously popular in 1970s France, and they made a huge number of films during that period.
On a Mediterranean cruise, a young man hired as a tour guide is intrigued by the beauty of a female interpreter hiding behind her sunglasses. He makes advances to her by venturing into a series of strange stories.
After serving together in the French Foreign Legion, a mercenary and a doctor leave the service and go their separate ways. Later, they are reunited and become involved with a caper involving millions in a high-security safe. The two men become locked in during a holiday weekend as they attempt to crack the safe's combination.
Cardinal Mazarin dies, leaving a power vacuum in which the young Louis asserts his intention to govern as well as rule. Mazarin's fiscal advisor, Colbert, warns against Fouquet, the Superintendant who has been systematically looting the treasury and wants to be prime minister. Fouquet believes Louis will soon tire of exercizing power and overplays his hand by offering a bribe to Louis' mistress to be his ally. She reports this to the king who arrests Fouquet. Louis and Colbert design a brilliant strategy to keep merchants making money, nobles in debt, the urban poor working and fed, and peasants untaxed.
Tulipe, is an old man who lives alone in an old railway carriage in the Argentueil region of Paris. His main passions are gardening and oil painting, but he also has a secret source of income. His godson discovers that Tulipe is actually a master forger, producing perfect copies of 10 franc notes. His godson’s girlfriend sees this as an opportunity to get very rich – but she must persuade Tulipe to forge 500 franc notes. Assuming Tulipe’s agreement, his godson and his girlfriend buy an expensive new car and luxury villa in provincial France – but there is a cruel turn of fate in store for them when Tulipe strikes up a friendship with a millionaire playboy.
Mario di Donati, a deserter from the Italian army, lives in Paris under a false name with Germaine, his French lover. When the latter learns about his hidden past, she feels hurt by Mario's lack of trust in her and she distances herself from him. In despair, Mario surrenders to the law but, at the time of trial, he runs away to join the woman he loves.
Given up for dead three years ago in a plane crash in the Amazon rainforest, a young woman arrives in Paris to find her eminent ethnologist husband. She learns of his death in obscure circumstances, having remarried in the meantime. She sets out to unravel the mystery surrounding her husband's death.
Pierre Tercelin who used to be a prosperous industrialist is now ruined and embittered, having become a mere lock keeper. A widower, he lives with his daughter Evelyne, a music-hall dancer. Claiming he is being persecuted by his cousin Edgar he gets in touch again with another cousin of his he hates, Bernard, a millionaire gun runner,who is also a victim of Edgar. It must be said that both Pierre and Bernard once caused Edgar to go bankrupt... Pierre offers Bernard to join efforts against Edgar. Soon after, Bernard dies of poison, which is only the first of a series of acts of violence. Tiercelin is shot at while going back home, Bernard's son is gunned down while his sister Luciane disappears. Chief-inspector Malouvier - who oddly enough looks very much like the suspect- investigates....
Caroline de Bienre, the 16-year-old daughter of French nobility, meets the handsome rogue, Gaston de Sallanches, who is expected to ask for the hand of her older, plainer sister in marriage. Gaston instead joins Caroline in her secret hiding place in the château's attic, where the infatuated Caroline begins an affair with him. Meanwhile, she is being courted by the dull, sincere Livio, but holds him off since she is in love with Gaston. When the revolution of 1789 breaks out Caroline is sent to a convent but her carriage is waylaid. She escapes and makes her way to Gaston's home, where she finds him in the arms of his mistress. She is angry and then agrees to marry Livio, now an out-of-favor revolutionary and a marked man, and Caroline is also now on the death list.
Paul Dorgères, a wealthy industrialist, has been mysteriously murdered. The investigation is entrusted to the experienced Chief Inspector Bonnardel and his young rookie assistant, Inspector Richard. Suspicion turns to his mistress Catherine Villard, with whom he had just broken up on the night of the crime. She is soon arrested and charged. However, Inspector Richard discovers a button at the scene of the crime which could help him to trace the trail and confound the culprit(s).
A traveller is stuck in an unknown town because his connecting train will only arrive in six hours. He decides to kill time by taking a stroll. He is not prepared to get confused with somebody else. In fact the citizens are eagerly awaiting the visit of a famous man and the clueless traveller is his doppelgänger. Soon he experiences what that means.