The independently-minded daughter of lower-middle class French shopkeepers, Brigitte, one of three sisters, refused to marry the father of her child when she became pregnant. In this film, she reminisces about her family life beginning when she was about five years old, up to the present when she is in her early 20s. Of her two sisters, one has a nervous breakdown and the other one becomes something of a baby factory. Colorful anecdotes of her eventful life lend additional depth to her insights.
Leon who works as a bathhouse attendant discovers a passion for the tango that will change his life. He falls in love with Fumée, a young and pretty prostitute who becomes his partner in tango contests.
William, together with his family, joins his childhood friend and his family in a crowded country house for a summer vacation. As a result, he has had to leave behind his mistress and all the other lovely women he enjoys trying to seduce. Stranded in the isolated rural cottage with his friend's family, he attempts to bed every female member of that clan. Unsuccessful and extremely frustrated, he is determined to have some fun on his vacation and abandons the whole group in pursuit of a trio of hippyish females who flirted with him earlier.
Michel Poiccard es un ex-figurante de cine admirador de Bogart. Tras robar un coche en Marsella para ir a París, mata fortuitamente a un motorista de la policía. Sin remordimiento alguno por lo que acaba de hacer, prosigue el viaje. En París, tras robar dinero a una amiga, busca a Patricia, una joven burguesa americana, que aspira a ser escritora y vende el New York Herald Tribune por los Campos Elíseos; sueña también con matricularse en la Sorbona y escribir algún día en ese periódico. En Europa cree haber hallado la libertad que no conoció en América. Lo que Michel ignora es que la policía lo está buscando por la muerte del motorista.
