Due to a garbage strike, inmates are called in to take care of the garbage collection. Taking advantage of this unexpected situation, three of them manage to elude their guards.

A small-scale cabaret troupe is touring the provinces. One afternoon while canoeing, Monique Darzel, one of the troupe's singers, spots an angler whose resemblance to Fernand Raynaud strikes her. She discusses this with Jean Duroc, the troupe's director, who laments the meagre revenues his show is raking in. He then had the idea of meeting this fisherman to convince him to imitate Fernand Raynaud in his shows. It turns out that the Fernand Raynaud impersonator is in fact Fernand Raynaud himself, who has come for a week's incognito vacation in the provinces. Raynaud is finally persuaded to play the novice comedian, in order to further develop the script for his next film, Les cabotins à travers les âges.

Backstage at a Paris theater, a famous, exasperatingly fatuous playwright learns that the actress who was to play the lead in his play is expecting a child. No great actress is available to take on the role. Except the famous actress Gabrielle Tristan, to whom he was married for ten years and to whom he no longer speaks. But their love of theater and their playfulness outweigh all their grudges, and Gabrielle takes on her ex-husband's play.

Michel and Paul earn money from passers-by by doing chalk drawings outside the Louvre. They also make the scene at the hot spots of Paris. Sand is a wealthy and luscious blonde artist who paints nude girls and houses at her loft. When Michel's gorgeous sister shows up from out of town, both Paul and Sand fall for her.