A man, his wife and their two sons are having a meal. One of the sons leaves the room pretending to be ill and collects a bunch of flowers form a cupboard and goes out. The other son takes a bunch of flowers from under his bed and he too leaves, followed by their father, also carrying flowers. The two sons and their father call on the same young women one after the other; as each arrives, the previous suitor is hidden in a piece of furniture: the father under a chair cover, one son in a cupboard and the other in a piano. A girlfriend of the young woman visits and the two play pranks on the hiding men by playing the piano and sitting on the chair cover. The three men emerge and the father chases his two sons outside until they remind him of his own folly; he gives his sons some money and urges them to keep silent.

In this one, [Max] is on vacation and wooing a young lady, but she and her cousin decide to play a trick on him, by getting him inside a barrel, and then tossing it into the ocean.

Jacques Averil leads an idle life which plunges him into weariness and melancholy. When he learns of the suicide of his father, a banker ruined by dark speculation in Icelandic minerals, he decides to take charge. An old friend of his father offers him the opportunity to join as a sailor.

Snuders, an avaricious boat-owner, insures his boat The Joanna against accident very much above its value, and then conspires with Verhoff, a notorious drunkard and unprincipled scoundrel, to lose it at sea. The latter agrees to carry out the plan for a consideration of 300 florins, and the bargain is concluded. To lend colour to the affair, Snuders also engages young Tijen as crew, and, despite the entreaties of his sweetheart, Trunski, the latter signs on. Out at sea Tijen discovers a paper which warns him of the villainy which is on foot. But Verhoff acts quickly, and, whilst the young sailor is sleeping in the cabin, the drunkard locks him in, fires the boat, and himself makes good his escape.

Again Max is forced into marriage. If he doesn't marry soon he won't get any more money from his uncle. As all three candidates refuse his proposal he talks his servant into playing the bride. He manages to fool his uncle and both get actually married. As soon as he holds in his hands the treaty that grants him a huge amount of money the hurry home. When his uncle pays them a visit they are found out.

Max and his young bride attempt to enjoy an Alpine honeymoon, despite the presence of her mother.

Max visits a doctor who prescribes a tonic (Bordeaux of Cinchona) for him to drink every morning. Upon returning home, Max sees a large glass which was left by his wife and labeled "Souvenir de Bordeaux". He consumes it its entirety after assuming that it was his medicine. Immediately Max feels much better. Hilarity ensues as Max goes about the day in a completely drunken state.

Max has just been married, but is about to be divorced, because at his marriage party he disgraced himself. Of course, the matter is a secret, but Max was most horribly annoyed with a persistent flea that located itself in his nether garments. So, retiring to a quiet spot, he removed both the garments and the flea, but, unfortunately, he was discovered in his seclusion. In the divorce court Max wins his case, but just how is too good to tell in a story of this sort.

Based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas.