Mr. Pelletan's rascal son Bébert son got another F for playing in class. His punishment is an essay on the Merovingian king Dagobert. All they know is he had eight wives and reunited Francia. The ignorant knave's irreverent imagination turns that into a harem and a ludicrous war without armies, loaded with anachronisms, in a race against rival king Charibert for the crown of Reims. The king's right hand, archbishop Eloi, the later patrons saint of carpentry, is portrayed as an inventor.
The detectives of the Paris Judicial Police, based at the Quai des Orfèvres, are mobilized by four criminal cases. A double murder, perpetrated in a hotel on the Place de Clichy, intrigues the investigators. The owner and a little maid were murdered in cold blood.
In the early 1950s, the popular radio show "La Kermesse aux Étoiles", hosted by the famous Jean Nohain, mixing lottery games and performances of various artists, will be disrupted by the adventures of a man and his fiancée seeking to recover a dangerous bottle of perfume (explosive) which was unfortunately mixed with the prizes to be won ...
Mr and Mrs Barbezat,Concierges are to marry their only daughter to a butcher's boy. Both the in-laws and the groom have an obsession: come what may, they are keen on honoring their engagements: promises are made to be kept is their motto. And when, on the wedding day, the unfortunate parents cannot provide the newly weds with...the "Mérinos" mattress which is part of the bride's Trousseau ,they are desperate. The husband will spend the whole wedding festivities trying to keep his word.
Endive-Meunier, a prosperous silk dealer from Lyon has an affair with his secretary he tries hard to keep secret. One day, he nevertheless accepts to accompany her to the seaside resort of Coeur-sur-Mer. Unfortunately for him, once there, he finds himself in the presence of Claudius Paquito, the popular barman of a fashionable club. The trouble is that the man is no other than one of his former employees he once fired for insolence...
Albert Topaze, sincere schoolteacher addicted to "rote" morality, works at a private school run by supremely money-grubbing M. Muche, whose daughter, also a teacher, makes cynical use of the knowledge that Topaze loves her. Alas, Topaze's naive honesty brings him unjust dismissal...and makes him fair game for the "aunt" of his private pupil, really the mistress of crooked politician Regis, who needs an honest-seeming "front man." Can artful Suzy Courtois keep Topaze on the string? With steadily escalating disillusion comes moral crisis...
The aunt of Alfred Puc, a meek tax-collector in Paris, dies while riding in a moving van. The driver, not wishing to be bothered by a police interrogation, hides her corpse in a cupboard before notifying Alfred. But the van is stolen. Alfred, being the heir of a rich lady, begins a frantic search to locate the missing van and the cupboard because one can't claim an inheritance if there is no 'corpus delecti.' In his search, he gets caught up in an underworld web and finds the body of a murdered gangster in his room. He finally locates the cupboard but promptly loses it again. But, wait, it isn't "finis' time, yet.
The local building-contractor Martin Roumagnac is fascinated by the fashionable Blanche Ferrand. To impress Blache, Martin presents her with a villa. However, this ruins him financially. Despite Martin's many efforts for the now femme-fatal Blanche, she is not able to chose between him and the rich consul De Laubry.
In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.
In 1860s France, a couple who have recently acquired a dilapidated country house in Vendôme discover within it the secret of a passionate love affaire that once took a macabre and sadly turn. it all began 50 years previously, when the wealthy landowner Gérard de Clergue fell madly in love with the beautiful young dancer Clara Biondi. In the course of the ensuing romance, Gérard remains blissfully ignorant of the fact that Clara had a previous lover, James de Poulay...
Edmond Dantes is falsely accused by those jealous of his good fortune, and is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the notorious island prison, Chateau d'If. While imprisoned, he meets the Abbe Faria, a fellow prisoner whom everyone believes to be mad. The Abbe tells Edmond of a fantastic treasure hidden away on a tiny island, that only he knows the location of. After many years in prison, the old Abbe dies, and Edmond escapes disguised as the dead body. Now free, Edmond must find the treasure the Abbe told him of, so he can use the new-found wealth to exact revenge on those who have wronged him.
Paris, France. Commissaire Wens is put in charge of the investigation into the murder of one of six friends who, in the past, made a very profitable promise.
In pre-World Ward I in Paris, a budding artist, Pierre LeBlanc, falls in love and marries Janine, a dressmaker's assistant. Pierre has a flair for designing clothes, and he and his bride live in a blissful paradise, until the war breaks out and he becomes a soldier. Janine dies in childbirth and, no longer desiring to live, Pierre volunteers for a dangerous patrol behind German lines. While recuperating in the hospital from a wound he received on the mission, Pierre spends his time drawing sketches of dresses. He becomes rich and famous after the war. Years later, after devoting himself to his daughter, Pierre seeks a marriage with a girl no older than his daughter. A conflict develops and to ensure his daughter's happiness, Pierre sacrifices his own plans.
After serving in the trenches of World War I, Jean Diaz recoils with such horror that he renounces love and personal pleasure to immerse himself in scientific research, seeking a machine to prevent war. He thinks he has succeeded, but the government subverts his discovery, and Europe slides with seeming inevitability toward World War II. In desperation, Diaz summons the ghosts of the war dead from the graves and fields of France to give silent, accusing protest.