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.

A plucky businesswoman agrees to receive love letters to a prefect’s wife from a young official, and soon finds herself embroiled in a scandal that inflames a town’s class tensions.

In 1930, on the island of Noronha in Brazil, the inmates of the penitentiary revolt. Frédéric Coulibaud, head of the aeropostale radio station, and his team-mates Mastic and Froment, try to prevent them from entering the concession where the island's governor and his daughter have taken refuge. They manage to repair the radio so as to follow and guide Mermoz as he attempts to cross the South Atlantic for the 53rd time. The aviator is forced to ditch and is picked up by a boat. Their mission accomplished, Coulibaud and his team boarded a British ship that had come to their rescue.