In the 1950s, in a small provincial town, a young inexperienced judge clashes with an influential notable during an investigation into a suspicious death. His perseverance to get to the truth will cause a huge scandal.

Henri Chatelard is well into his forties, owns a restaurant and a cinema in the city, and appreciates women. When he meets Marie, an 18-ish strong-head who just lost her father in a small fishing village, it is not clear who is the hunter and who is the prey.

A war correspondent who was stationed in Paris during WW II married a French girl who was murdered by the Nazis. After the war he returns to to try to find his son, whom he lost during a bombing raid but has been told is living in an orphanage in Paris.

Story is primarily based on the adventures of Antoine, a young telegraph messenger on his second night of work. He is given three telegrams, one of which is for the president of the Camber of Deputies. Excited, Antoine runs his bicycle into a truck and loses the telegrams. What follows is an amusing and agonizing search for the missing messages. He is assisted first by a glum, wise-beyond-her-years little girl, Amelie; an off-duty police superintendent, a schoolmaster, a cookie-tin maker and a fireman. The harmonica musical theme is played by Flore Falvey.

While investigating the world of Parisian tramps, journalist René Savary, himself disguised as a poor beggar, notices the strange behavior of a little boy. He follows the brat after he has sneaked out of a barge, catches up with him and takes him to his home. There, the kid tells him about himself : his name is Jean, his mother has disappeared and since then he has been left to fend for himself. Moved by the lot of the wretched boy, Savary, with the aid of his friend Pierrot, undertakes to solve the mystery.

Professor Louis Delage is a kidney transplant specialist. He is so good in his field that his peers nickname him the "great man". But one day, one of his patients die during surgery and Delage starts doubting. Is he actually such a great man? To fight desperation he decides to take in the deceased child while devoting more time to Florence, his hitherto neglected wife.

Ireland, 1922. In the midst of a national uprising, Catherine, a young orphan employed in household chores, goes in search of her brother whom she has heard in a dream calling for help.

As part of the fascination in post World War II France with American culture, a young French couple here travel to the US to see for themselves the prosperity they have heard about.

While celebrating his birthday, police inspector Basquier recalls two of his most celebrated cases. The first involves duplicitous moneylender Olga. The second concerns the brutal broad daylight murder of innocent young Yvonne.

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.