The good guys win out in this sweet tale about a young orphan who is abused for much of her life but who eventually finds happiness when she marries an honest man who extricates her from her situation.

By a cold day of September of 1872, two young brothers named André and Julien Volden leave Phalsbourg in Lorraine to grant their recently deceased father's wish. Their goal is to see their uncle Frantz in Marseille

Aged penniless actors are living in a old people's home. They always talk about their past glory or failures. One day Raphael Saint-Clair comes; he has been a famous actor and had a lot of love affairs. Passions come back, and jealousies... A bitter film about aging, failure and the entertainment.

Julien Villandrit is the owner of the estate of Les Basses-Bruyères and its textile factory, where the manager is his childhood friend Corradin. Julien marries his neighbour Régine, unaware that Corradin also loves her. Julien is sent to gaol for a murder actually committed by Corradin. The only witness to the truth is the woodsman Rudeberg and Corradin buys his silence by paying for the education of his son Pascal. Julien's struggle to clear his name and to rescue Régine and their daughter Christiane from Corradin's scheming extends over many years and faces many setbacks.

In the Le Mans railway station, Oscar Ribouis is waiting for the connection that will lead him to Rennes, his home town. Feeling a bit thirsty, he decides to have a quick one at the refreshing room. And feeling a bit lonely he invites a rail worker to have a drink in his company and tells him about his stay in Paris. But after a couple of glasses of wine, Oscar misses his connection. Worse, he goes out, walks on the tracks and what does he do but get his foot stuck in switches! About to be run over by a train he is saved at the last moment by his new companion, the railway-man. Saved from the train alright but not from a heap of coal he falls into! Now blacker than an African Negro, Oscar, once again helped by his companion, manages to get on a night train for Rennes. But, still drunk like a fish, he wakes all the passengers of the sleeping car and scares them stiff: they all believe they are being attacked by a black bandit!

Louise, a young seamstress, has fallen in love with Julien, her neighbor, a composer who leads a bohemian lifestyle with his friends, who are artists like him. Her overprotective working-class parents are, unfortunately, opposed to her marrying the man she loves. Louise then decides to run away with Julien. One day, she runs into her father, who is now very ill...

A young noblewoman is unhappy about needing to marry the village ironmaster for financial reasons, but later comes to appreciate her husband.