Anatole, quivering nostrils and greedy lips, is the resourceful clerk of Mrs. Paufilat, a butcher. It takes a fancy to take on the identity of the Paufilat son, Paul. He must then undergo the assaults of the tumultuous Germaine, exhilarated by the money of Paul Paufilat.
A marquis organizes a matrimonial contest with the aim of enriching three spinsters.
Monsieur Vincent is the respected healer of a Basque village. But nobody knows that Vincent Berteaux used to be a surgeon in Paris. When Assomption, a young holidaymaker, arrives in the village in the company of her mother, little does Vincent know that the past returns to his life.
A father falls in love with his son's mistress whom he has forced to emigrate to force him to break up. More carefree than a schoolboy, he ruins himself for the beauty who soon chases him away. The family will soon be reunited permanently.