The plot concerns a comet hurling toward Earth on a collision course and the different reactions to people on the impending disaster.

In the French Basque Country, Ramon, the son of a farmer and fruit and vegetable merchant with a beautiful voice, has the good life. He is engaged to his charming cousin Maria. But his daily life is called into question when, during a fight, he believes he has killed a bad boy. He flees to Algeria where, with a friend, he joins the Saharan Pioneers.

A woman suffers ill repute when she deserts her husband for a fling with an adventurer and gives the lover jewelry to pay the hotel bill. Will the husband be understanding and forgive her?

Argan, the imaginary patient, allows himself to be led by his wife and his doctors who take advantage of his weakness. Only his daughter has sincere love for him. He ends up accepting that she should marry the one she loves and not the benet, son of an apothecary, whom he intended for her.

Under the Directory, Clairette is in love with the chansonnier Ange Pitou, while the hairdresser Pomponnet is destined for her as a husband. But Ange Pitou is flighty and lets herself be seduced by Mademoiselle Lange who wanted to know the author of seditious couplets.

A love between a teacher and his assistant is thwarted, because of their too great age difference.

A kind and generous village noble, specializing in good works, actually leads a double existence and carries out dishonest activities.

In 1906, François left the Basque country with his father, who had decided to settle in Argentina following an incident between him and Esteban. Having become a powerful industrialist, he returned to France in 1940 on the occasion of the signing of a contract. He learns that the Haut-le-Vent estate, occupied by his aunt Anna, is his. Greeted with mistrust by the villagers, he manages to make himself sympathetic and decides to stay on the estate with Gisèle, Esteban's daughter.

Edmond Dantes is falsely accused by those jealous of his good fortune, and is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the notorious island prison, Chateau d'If. While imprisoned, he meets the Abbe Faria, a fellow prisoner whom everyone believes to be mad. The Abbe tells Edmond of a fantastic treasure hidden away on a tiny island, that only he knows the location of. After many years in prison, the old Abbe dies, and Edmond escapes disguised as the dead body. Now free, Edmond must find the treasure the Abbe told him of, so he can use the new-found wealth to exact revenge on those who have wronged him.