Lieutenant Varnière, responsible for discovering the cause of the death of two officers in Algeria, unmasks the assassin in the person of a Russian who lives with three women. He falls in love with one of them and runs away with her while the Russian is killed by a devoted servant.

A famous painter loves Madeleine Granval, a rich and divorced society woman, who cheats on him. To console himself, he goes to Montmartre where he meets Denise Fleury, a young woman who has fallen into poverty.

A Paris night club proprietor falls from grace and is reduced, after going away for a while, to working there in a menial position.

A French washerwoman becomes a duchess and a friend of Napoleon.