"Love + fear = Torment" exposes the secret world of the French model studios, and the men who try to corrupt them. Mobsters become involved when fifty-thousand dollars worth of uncut gems are stolen. A model studio becomes terrorized as one of the models innocently befriends one of the mobsters.
An anthology film consisting of four stories. (1) A man reads a Dracula novel while in bed, but cannot seem to tell the novel from reality, causing sleep troubles. (2) A man cannot escape the absurd ads he saw at the movie theater that day. (3) A polluted and construction-ridden town keeps everybody on edge, sending one man to the doctor. (4) A hunter, a farmer and a couple on a picnic unknowingly cause continuous trouble for one another.
Count Karnstein sends for a doctor to help his sick daughter Laura. Her nurse believes she is possessed by the spirit of a dead ancestor, Carmilla. A young woman becomes intrigued by the mysterious deaths surrounding Laura after a carriage accident outside the castle forces her to stay. They become close friends until Laura becomes convinced the spirit of Carmilla is forcing her to kill.
American fashion model Anne Traymore, swimming off the isle of Majorca, loses a bracelet, which the handsome Manuel del Rio Montoya returns to her. She believes he owns a beautiful yacht called The Swan, but he merely works on it for the wealthy Rene LeClerc.
The two merrymakers Cartahu and Bailladrisse sail together on a cargo ship. When customs officers come aboard to conduct a search, Cartahu is unaware of a drug dealer's accomplice, who hides the box of narcotics in Cartahu's bag, which has already been visited. Unsuspecting, the two comrades go ashore, taking the precious box with them. At the hotel, by mistake, their luggage is given to another person. To recover the merchandise, the traffickers pursue the two friends, who nevertheless manage to have the whole gang arrested; and, after being tempted by pretty women to live with them, prefer to set sail for new adventures.
Catherine Miller's triumph at the Casino de Paris leads fashionable playwright Alexandre Gordi to ask her to create his next play. Flattered, Catherine moves into Gordi's villa near Cannes, escorted by her entire family. Only Jacques Merval, Gordi's secretary, disagrees. This is understandable, as it is he who writes the plays that Gordi, rather tired, simply signs. Jacques is a one-man band in every sense of the word, allying himself with the Casino manager to bring Catherine back to her music-hall successes. Despite a few clouds, and thanks to Gordi's generous intervention, he succeeds. Wasn't his only thought the happiness of the woman he loves?