After he is thought dead, a painter who had no success before suddenly becomes a man of repute, and a statue is even prepared in his honor.

The workers Legendre and Martinet have won a large sum in the national lottery. Instead of squandering it, they had the good idea to invest it in industry. Happy in business, they soon find themselves at the head of a fortune. But their characters are very different. Legendre, who is brave and honest, narrowly escapes the malevolence of a couple of harlots. Martinet, his former work companion, has become a crooked and formidable financier. Both will face each other in court, the honesty of the first finally triumphing over the greed of the second.

Comte de Larzac, an aging seducer, leaves Paris for Lannemezan. Accompanied by his friend Charmeuil, he goes there to acknowledge the paternity of Jean, a twenty-year old young man who knows nothing about his biological father. Jean, after falling for Jeanne, the daughter of a farmer, now courts Georgina, a middle-class woman of Romanian origin. After Father Jocasse has told Jean that he is Comte de Larzac's son, the young man follows his father to Paris. But he finds it hard to comply with the usages of high society and when his father refuses to consent to his marriage with Georgina, he returns to Lannemezan. Georgina is so upset by the count's refusal that she comes to see him and tells him very candidly about her past life. Moved by her plea, de Larzac drives her back to Lannemezan so that she can marry Jean. What was not expected is that, during the trip, they discover they are close to each other.

Discovering his wife's relationship with a middle-class snob, a husband tries his best to break this relationship by the seducer himself and ends up leaving with his wife for another wedding night in Venice.

An adventuress serves as bait for a swindler, who robs the naive people she brings to him with poker. A childhood friend helps him.

Loursat, a lawyer, lives with his daughter Nicole in a sinister and vast bourgeois residence. Abandoned for nearly twenty years by his wife, the brilliant lawyer has sunk into alcoholism and his relationship with his daughter is virtually non-existent. However, one day the corpse of a stranger is discovered in the residence of Loursat. Nicole, who frequents a gang of young people who escape boredom by stealing cars and other objects, is immediately suspected.

Georges Legrand is a young unscrupulous reveler. He seduces Fred, a woman doctor before shamelessly dumping her for Aline Ribourg, a tennis player. Soon fed up with his new conquest, he returns to Fred. But Aline is pregnant from him. Showing an admirable sense of self-sacrifice, Fred manages to persuade Georges to marry Aline.

Eusèbe Bonbonneau, a solicitor's clerk, learns one day that a candidate bearing his name runs for election as a member of parliament. In fact Frazier, a crooked businessman, has urged an accomplice to impersonate Eusèbe, in order to obtain, through this straw man, authorizations for the creation of a casino in Sanceau-les-Nains and to make big money out of it. Eusébe decides to go to Paris to investigate. In the capital he meets Mariska, an exuberant actress who encourages him to try to get elected. As a result, thanks to her the true Bonbonneau becomes a member of parliament and the crook's accomplice is arrested. But Frazier is not impressed and, changing tactics, he starts manipulating Eusèbe.

In his prison cell, the composer Remi Bonvent composed an opera, The columns bed. The director of the prison, Porey Cave, succeeds made believe he is the author of this work. The death of the two protagonists will prevent the discovery of the truth.

Isidore Lechat is a ruthless self-made man whose money allows him to humiliate the others, particularly a ruined noble: he wants his daughter to marry this marquis's son but the girl is in love with a young scientist.