Baseado no romance homônimo de Émile Zola, o filme aborda os movimentos grevistas de um grupo de mineiros no norte da França do século XIX contra a exploração de que são vítimas. Entretanto, ao se levantarem contra o sistema, passam ser alvos da repressão das autoridades.
Coming out from jail, Lucas has decided to change his life and behave like a good citizen. But when he is taken hostage in a bank by a hare-brained robber, no cops can believe he is not part of the action.
Dez anos após a morte de Jean Cadoret sua esposa voltou à vida de cantora de ópera e sua filha Manon tornou-se uma bela jovem pastora que vive no campo provençal idílico. Manon resolve se vingar dos homens responsáveis pela morte de seu pai.
Barbara (Jane Birkin) marries Julien (Sami Frey) a charming and sexy man. Barbara's old flame Paul (Gérard Jugnot) is highly suspicious of Julien. It seems Julien's previous two wives died under dubious circumstances and he collected a wad of insurance money as a result. Paul cannot ignore his misgivings, and so he follows Barbara and Julien to Morocco on their honeymoon, intent on preventing any harm to the woman he still loves.
In Paris XVIIIth district, Lambert works the night shift at a gas station, rarely speaking, living alone, drinking. One day comes a half-jewish half-arab small-time crook in dire straits, pushing a Moped. Named Bensoussan, he takes refuge at the station pretending he needs a spark plug. The two men become friends.