A drunken, self-destructive woman called Betty wanders into a Parisian bar where she meets middle-aged alcoholic Laure. Laure decides to take care of Betty. Recovering in a hotel room, Betty begins to recount to Laure the story of her bourgeois life and her unhappy and unfaithful marriage.
It was during one of his missions in Norway that Antoine learned of his wife's death. He leaves his experimental submarine and returns to Paris. Helene was found in the Seine and had taken barbiturates. Even though he had not been with Hélène for six years, he knew her well enough to believe that she was incapable of committing suicide. So who and why?
"Maine-Ocean" is the name of a train that rides from Paris to Saint-Nazaire (near the ocean). In that train, Dejanira, a Brazilian, has a brush with the two ticket inspectors. Mimi, another traveler and also a lawyer, helps her. The four of them will meet together later and live a few shifted adventures with a strange-speaking sailor (Mimi's client).
A hatter in a provincial town (Michel Serrault) leads the life of a respectable citizen but is in fact a serial murderer. The only person to suspect this is his neighbour the tailor (Charles Asnavour).
In early twentieth-century Brittany, two peasants marry, have a son, and live in traditional Breton ways: three generations under one roof, a division of labor between the sexes, elders' stories at night, politics and religion during their little free time. Times are hard: la Chienne du Monde drives some to suicide; Ankou (death) is close at hand. Pierre is born into this republican family, his lyric childhood interrupted by the outbreak of war and his father's conscription. He learns his catechism and, as a child of a Reds, also reveres school. His grandfather and father often put him on their shoulders, giving him a ride on the horse of pride.
Stephane (Victor Lanoux) is the mayor of a small village. He is also the manager of the tannery which provides the inhabitants with work. In a fit of anger, he kills his wife (Edith Scob). A judge (Jean Carmet) tries to prove his culpability, but it's not an easy task, because there is a political and social pressure.
Jean-Arthur has been working as a clerk in a travel agency. One day, he, along with his colleague comes to a brilliant idea: what if I offer tourists real extreme recreation? So the group of tourists land on a deserted island with no food, no shelter, nothing.
Amandine is twenty years old, the most beautiful buttocks in Paris, and unfortunately a very ugly nose, which forces her in her profession of model, to pose only from behind. Trying in vain to save money that her sister Joëlle constantly borrows from her, she will finally be reimbursed and will thus be able to afford aesthetic surgery and become a lovely cover girl...
Rosemonde, hailed as "the Princess" reign over a slum in the Paris suburbs. Herbert, a reporter who came to investigate on the pollution, ends up in a grinding machine of her invention. Rosemonde resells the bones to the church authorities who use them as holy relics. Inspector Adrian Bondu is handling the case... But a young hippie who looks like Jesus will have Rosemonde suddenly feel very earthly feelings...
Gaston Bellus, is the director of a textile house, and the research laboratory makes a sensational discovery: the elastic fabric. This new discovery is used to manufacture new modern stretchable bathing suits. His daughter Clementine, enters the beauty pageant to represent France for the swimsuit launch. But scandal ensues when the public soon discover, the photos of the event in which this new revolutionary material is completely invisible on photographs & live television.
Martin is a nurse in a private clinic in Paris. The victim of a serious concussion, an unidentified casualty, arrives in the emergency room one night. He is operated on immediately. When he wakes up, half-unconscious, he tells Martin a confused story about stealing jewels from a maharajah visiting Marseille... before falling into total amnesia. Real and fake policemen interrogate Martin, gangsters kidnap him to get him to reveal precious information, but... the nurse keeps his mouth shut!
Onésime Labarbe, a "crawler" in the French Air Force, wants to become a pilot. He hopes to triumph over the sarcasm of his prankster comrades and win the hand of his beloved. Onésime has anticipated this by pretending to be a pilot in front of the young girl and her parents. It's true that they are no more barons than Onésime is a pilot, despite what his fiancée Pulchérie has said. The young soldier's efforts are not without their mishaps and setbacks. Yet his faith and tenacity triumphed over all obstacles. He is finally accepted as a pilot, while Pulchérie, through a misunderstanding, becomes an unwilling parachutist and, at the same time, a champion jumper. The deception is uncovered, but what does it matter to the two fiancés, who are joyfully celebrated by the entire Escadrille and can at last look forward to their long-awaited happiness?