1947, in France, Antoine and Antoinette, a young couple living in Paris, lead a monotonous existence: he works in a print shop while she is a shop assistant. But one evening, they regain hope: Antoine finds a winning lottery ticket in his girlfriend's handbag. He decides to cash it in, but loses his wallet. What follows is a series of twists and turns that redefine the couple's priorities while forcing them to remain optimistic.

Micheline Chevassu is a young, naive woman living in an orphanage. Through classified ads, she has a date with an unknown man. She escapes from the orphanage to go to it, dreaming of the Prince Charming. But comes Nicolas Rougemont, an unattractive middle-aged man... He pretends not to be the author of the letters, who could not come...

A great disappointed love once encouraged the vocation of Sister Claire, who, however, forgot nothing. She follows in their daily life three young girls beloved and badly brought up by a widower, an artist with measured comicality. Sister Claire will save one of the sisters abandoned by her seducer.

A scientist who have discovered how to turn salt water into petrol dies before he has revealed his formula. By mistake it's assumed that his assistant knows it although he does not.

The agency À Votre Service has the reputation of meeting all needs. This is what Stanislas observes when his uncle replaces his mistress with a fiancée provided by the agency.

The novelist Suzanne Delmont creates a character, "The Uncatcable Frédéric", a sort of Arsène Lupin. A mysterious stranger launches a press campaign accusing him of having a harmful influence on young people...

A soccer enthusiast like his father, Martin Lambert is the (gifted) goalkeeper of the local team. He falls in love with Jeanette and soon marries her. Alongside a happy marital life, Martin becomes a successful professional. Which proves a mixed blessing since fame makes him vain and haughty and his marriage gets seriously affected. But the Second World War breaks out and Martin is drafted. Taken prisoner a few months later, he is sent to a camp. When he is released, he tries resume his career but his wounds hurt too much and he has to give in. But not soccer: he will now proudly train young shoots.

Jean Berthillot and his wife Anne-Marie settle in Guinea. He is a primary-school teacher, fully occupied with his job. Anne-Marie is bored and has the pain of seeing their baby die. Depressed, she tries to hold on to an engineer, Carlier, whom she met when she first arrived in the country. She won't leave with him, but the disagreement between the couple is growing. Convinced that he is leading the best life, Jean does nothing to keep his wife. It's up to the natives to reconcile them and help the young woman share her husband's ideal.

After inheriting a forest in Africa where she decides to go, Thérèse tries to sell her property to Pascal, a gold digger who owns the land neighboring this forest. He refuses the transaction and multiplies the obstacles against the forest exploitation project to which Thérèse resigns herself given Pascal's attitude.