In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

The film follows four families, with different nationalities (French, German, Russian and American) but with the same passion for music, from the 1930s to the 1960s. The various story lines cross each other time and again in different places and times, with their own theme scores that evolve as time passes. The main event in the film is the Second World War, which throws the stories of the four musical families together and mixes their fates. Although all characters are fictional, many of them are loosely based on historical musical icons (Édith Piaf, Josephine Baker, Herbert von Karajan, Glenn Miller, Rudolf Nureyev, etc.) The Boléro dance sequence at the end brings all the threads together.

Camille, Dov and Joëlle live on the edge of society and are involved in petty theft helping them to buy their drug doses and to survive as best they can. One day, while attempting to rob a movie theater, they activate the alarm signal and it is Pierre, Camille's brother, who is doing a heist in the same building, who is arrested red-handed. The three young people decide to kidnap a police officer and exchange him for Pierre.

Robert Lamoureux plays a General in the Resistance. With an unlikely team of French patriots, he easily outwits the buffoonish Germans and steals the master copy of their plans to invade England. By doing so, he prevents the invasion and makes it more likely that the Allies will win the war.

A musical fresco retracing the lives of singers of the 60s. Killi-Watch and Surprise-partie retrace the musical epic of the variety singers of the 60s. Music hall show with playback.

A man who had everything taken away from him, including his family, by his brother teams up with a young card player in order to take revenge on the brother.

Upon their release from prison twen­ty years ear­li­er, Gérard, Ary and Philippe asked them­selves if hon­esty was not the best rack­et of them all. Today, they are insep­a­ra­ble and scrupu­lous­ly above board. But Gérard learns he is ter­mi­nal­ly ill. Their friend’s days being num­bered, Ary and Philippe want to offer him one last love sto­ry… because, as Gérard likes to say : love is bet­ter than life.

Russian spy boss in Geneva spends a night interrogating two spies to see who is a traitor.

Four guys working for a small grocer in trouble, declare war on a new giant neighborhood supermarket by attempting several coups. A film about the big store taking over the business of smaller stores.

At 45, divorced, unemployed and father of two children, Franois Morot realizes that he can no longer support the society in which he lives and decides to leave everything.