Two French paras who had lived through deadly situations in Algeria, meet again in civil life. Frapier is a newspaper reporter, and one day finds his friend Porte - surrounded by the police after a car theft, and an accidental killing of a police officer. He helps him escape, and provides shelter with the complicity of his girlfriend Vera. Later, Frapier will have doubts about Vera's love, and lives a passionate night with beautiful Arabelle. However, he finds himself playing a game of life and death both with Vera, and Porte. It will end in sadness for one, and death for another.
The war will separate the members of the Valon family, two sons Alexandre and Antoine being prisoners, while the youngest Gilbert enters the secret army. Only their sister, Denise, will stay on the farm with her grandfather and grandmother. The Germans invade the free zone.
Olivier Cabrol is an immature young reveler who lives from hand to mouth. One day he inherits a fabulous fortune from an eccentric uncle. But on the one condition to spend a certain amount of time as a tramp. Olivier accepts out of sheer greed but soon finds the experience rewarding. He finds himself as well as new friends (true ones this time) and even love in the person of Colette.
The romantic life of the head of a bandit gang, wanted by the police. Cartouche gets away with being deported to Louisiana after unmasking a plot by a Duke against the throne.
Georges, a medical student, falls in love with Louisette, his pretty neighbor, and gets engaged to her. They are as happy as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. One small hitch is that Georges' father has serious money troubles and cannot support his son anymore. But what does it matter? Georges and Louisette just have to find work. The latter is hired by a rich tenant of the apartment building she lives in with her fiancé. Another hitch lies in the fact that Monsieur Grompat, her employer is a bit like the serpent in the Book of Genesis : he only aims to tempt her and to seduce her out of the arms of Georges. But Louisette is not Eve and she manages to emerge unscathed from the adventure. She will live happily with the man of her heart for the rest of her days.
