Returning by train to the French port of Le Havre, Jacques Lantier, a tormented railwayman, meets by chance the impulsive stationmaster Roubard and Séverine, his wife.

A one-night stand with an entertainer threatens to destroy a woman's marriage after she gives birth to a black child.

The maid of a doctor, he had some canvases he didn't care for bestowed on him once by an unknown artist, thankfully has saved them as the paintings are now worth some money and others want them.

Flipotte, driven out of his band of burglars, takes the name, personality, house and checkbook of Monsieur Pardigon. When the real Pardigon returns, he doesn't stop him because he has learned from Flipotte that money can make people happy.

During a transvestite ball, a young provincial meets Fanny Legrand. A great love is born between them. Later, the young man learns that Fanny was a great coquette. He leaves her, he comes back, he forgives. But when he embarks for America, Fanny does not follow him.

It is only the prospect of having a child that draws the otherwise strictly urban new wife, Suzanne, to a family farm, she really doesn't care for the countryside of for her in laws.

Unhappy with her humdrum life as a provincial schoolteacher, Audrey Greenwood marries Major Carter, an officer in the British Army whom she does not love. Not long after the wedding Carter is on his way to Malaysia, accompanied by his wife, to take up a post in the British colony. During the long sea voyage, Audrey becomes acquainted with the handsome Prince Selim, the heir to the Malaysian throne. Life in the province of Malacca soon proves disagreeable to the free-spirited Englishwoman and she becomes a social outcast when her amorous affair with the prince is discovered.

Jacotte, a little orphan, is adopted by two single uncles who are looking for a governess for her. Monique hides that she is very rich to be hired because she is seduced by the little girl. Her father, chocolate manufacturer and competitor of the uncles, decides to sink them. But everything works out when Monique marries one of the brothers.

Germaine Moreuil's insane jealousy triggers such violent marital quarrels that the spouses file for divorce. When Germaine's parents find out, they sham a fierce spat to disgust their daughter and her husband with the pathetic spectacle of a couple at loggerheads. But just as their farce is on the brink of becoming a tragedy, events combined with the blunders of all four happily reconcile everyone.

A young woman is in love with a young writer, winner of the Prix Goncourt. Married to a banker, she must face her husband's anger and the blackmail of a former suitor.