In Grenoble, a prostitute is murdered in her hospital bed. Cora twenty-two and also a prostitute was one of her friends. On a daily basis these women suffer violence receive a miserable salary and work non-stop in terror of the pimps.

A septuagenarian widow feels revived by an old painter with whom she falls in love.

A drunken, self-destructive woman called Betty wanders into a Parisian bar where she meets middle-aged alcoholic Laure. Laure decides to take care of Betty. Recovering in a hotel room, Betty begins to recount to Laure the story of her bourgeois life and her unhappy and unfaithful marriage.

Young Martin has been acting strange. At his school, his teacher and classmates notice that he is less talkative and more withdrawn. When those around him begin to prod, they discover that Martin’s single mother has died. Fearful that he will be sent away from home now that he has no parents, Martin looks to his friends for help. With Jerome leading the charge to save Martin from the orphanage, the first thing they decide to do is dispose of the mother’s body.

Frenchman Abel Tiffauges is a naive man who lives a simple life working as a mechanic. Falsely accused of being a child abuser, he is recruited as a soldier when World War II begins, but is captured soon and taken to the heart of Nazi Germany.

After a messy divorce, a struggling writer takes a holiday on the French Riviera, where he decides to investigate a series of mysterious incidents.

Angelo believes his father works with extraterrestrials on a top secret project.

On his way to a nameless destination, a man decides to stop by his father's house. The awkwardness of the relationship between the man and his old and ill father marks an ordinary visit that could very well be their last.

France, World War II. In order to somehow make ends meet, the mother of two children, Marie Latour, does underground abortions and rents a room to a familiar prostitute. She doesn't pay any attention to her husband, who returned from the war because of his injury, and lives her own life. Abortions gradually begin to bring a good income, and boredom can be easily dispelled by starting up with a young lover.

For more than 15 years, two Marseille friends and criminals battle the law, rival gangs, prison authorities and even mined beaches in order to survive.