In 19th-century France, doctor's wife Emma Bovary seeks to escape her dull provincial life through various extramarital affairs and extravagant spending, leading to tragic consequences.

Now that they have inherited a huge sum of money Moïse Lévy and his brother Salomon are the prosperous owners of a a department store, the Galeries Lévy & Cie. Life is sweet but unexpectedly sours the day a fake Lévy cousin gets into their lives, claiming that the business is his, not theirs.

On the eve of getting married by order of his mother to a wealthy American heiress, Leon learns that his former friend just had a child. She cannot keep him, however, being in poverty.

A woman who is the mistress of a well off antiquarian receives a visit from a younger man. Is her lost son from long ago?

Octave Laburette only makes blunders in his job with a backroom worker. He buys ten thousand shares of the Compagnie Générale des Cacahuètes, when the client wanted to sell them. His boss registers them on his own account: Octave then owes the agency sixty thousand francs and his wife informs him that she is joining her lover.

Duparquet is the controller of Les Halles, and plays matchmaker between the young farm-girl Ciboulette and Antonin, a young spoiled aristocrat.

A widower sends his son Dédé to boarding school, falls in love with a young woman and gradually neglects the child, not out of disaffection but because of routine. The little boy is helpless: he feels he has been completely forsaken - Fortunately, things improve: Dédé ends up finding a new mummy.

Jacques de Nisson, a rich man, has a new mistress, Lucie Cavelier. Which does not prevent him from courting Florence, the wife of his lawyer friend Forestier. One day, Jacques is found murdered and chief-inspector Candély is sent on the spot to investigate. Jean, the victim's butler, Lucie as well as Florence are suspected in turns but the real murderer is finally identified thanks to his fingerprints.

In a small provincial town, the new colonel of the dragoon regiment consigns all his men. Three soldiers defy orders and jump the wall. But the colonel becomes indulgent thanks to the intervention of the general who did not remain insensitive to the charm of a young American.