It’s summer, on the beach of this little town in Brittany, a man is building a sand castle. A few people watch him. We will be told the story of three of them: a boy, Jumbo, aged 9; François and his sister Zaza. All of them had to deal with the death of somebody they cherished.
Idris is a young shepherd in the desert of Tunesia. One day a jeep drives by and a woman takes a picture of him; she says she's from Paris and promises to send him a copy. But when nothing arrives during the next months, Idris becomes worried. His father advises him to get his "face" back or bad things may happen to him. So he sets out to Paris... and discovers Paris as a world full of strange things and weird behavior.
Aboard a giant slave ship in an abandoned Citroën factory, the history of the West Indies is traced through several centuries of French oppression. The ship becomes a stage for the people to tell stories via song and dance—from their enslavement to their displacement in Metropolitan France.
Henri Serin (Jean-Pierre Marielle), an umbrella salesman, leads a quiet life between his work, his family and his passion for painting. During his many business trips, Henri indulges in a few amorous escapades, which provide a welcome change from the tiresome daily routine his bigoted wife locks him into. One fine day, Henri decides to drop everything and live on love and fresh water. He ends up in Pont-Aven, where he meets Émile, a local painter imitating Gauguin, with whom he shares his drinking and other feminine attractions.
Inspector Bérurier, having inherited a mansion three years earlier, comes to collect rent from the tenant when the latter is murdered under mysterious circumstances. Béru calls Commissaire San Antonio to the rescue, and the two men discover that Laurenzi's hotel is home to a "brothel" whose director, Madame Albertine, soon reveals to the two policemen that Laurenzi was having an ongoing relationship with Helga, one of the boarders, and Mr. Max, a regular guest of the house.
Adrien Chautard, a major industrialist from Abidjan, has been chosen to replace an expert on the official Ivory Coast delegation sent to Paris to discuss the country's association with the Common Market. Chautard is delighted at the prospect of this trip, where he will be reunited with the woman of his dreams: Elisabeth. Alas, at Abidjan airport, a nasty surprise awaits him: Berthe, his lawful wife, has decided to leave with him to consult a leading cardiologist in the capital.
It all happens in a hospital waiting room. While his young wife has just had a serious accident and is undergoing surgery, the husband relives, in his memory, the reality of their near past, or what he would have liked his marital union to be. At the outset, this young couple took as their model the famous couple from "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" and their line of conduct: complete freedom for everyone, as long as they confide in each other about their adventures.
A young woman joins a theatrical troupe where she slowly believes that the director is involved with a secret group and that he is in grave danger.
During the Occupation, Cora takes the place of her dead husband at the head of a Resistance network. One evening, she sympathizes with Bernard, a Swiss journalist. However, he is actually an undercover German officer who is close to the man ordered to find her using an Identikit picture...
Madame Célerier is determined to marry off her son François to a rich and haughty woman but François has other plans.