Elder brother, Adam Andinnian, is secretly married to Rose Turner. To defend her from a man who is stalking her and making lecherous advances, Adam shoots him and is sentenced to life in prison in a penal colony. Adam's mother, who favors him, conspires to help him escape the penal colony. The escape is a failure, resulting in a violent shootout where Adam, a prison guard, and another prisoner all perish. One body is never recovered, but the men are presumed dead. Younger brother, Karl, is engaged to Lucy Cleeves, but her snobbish parents deem him unsuitable. The narrative follows the interweaving lives and the long-term consequences of Adam's imprisonment and the failed escape attempt.

Due to a revolution fueled by Fedor Karew, the queen of Gregoria abdicates and travels incognito to Paris with her cousin Vicky. She becomes a cabaret singer and Vicky her chauffeur.

While engaged in the six-day Vel d'Hiv event, a cyclist is concerned about the behaviour of his wife, whom he believes to be unfaithful.

Esmeralda, a beautiful gypsy street dancer, arouses the desire of men, especially of Claude Frollo, the archdeacon of Notre Dame. The latter asks Quasimodo, the deaf and deformed bell-ringer of the cathedral, to kidnap the girl. Quasimodo, who has been adopted by Frollo and obeys his every word, captures the gypsy but she is saved thanks to Phoebus, a handsome captain, and his archers. Arrested by Phoebus, the hunchback is condemned to be flogged at the pillory. When Esmeralada, moved to pity by his lot, gives him water to drink, Quasimodo falls in love with her. Later, Phoebus is stabbed to death and Esmeralda is wrongly accused of the murder. Sentenced to hang, she is saved by Quasimodo who offers her asylum and... the love of his heart.

Count Moffat becomes infatuated with Nana, a presumptuous stage actress, vulgar, hypocritical and promiscuous, willing to do anything to succeed.

A young student breaks off her engagement after her late mother leaves her with a baby she had with a stranger. But the baby's father returns and claims it. The young girl, her life shattered, tries to commit suicide but her fiancé, who has never stopped loving her, arrives in time.

Poor Arlette is married off by her well meaning mother to a supposed count who turns out to be a fake and a crook.Arlette seeks out the real count, to whom in name technically she is married.

A young officer of Napoleon's armies returns to Corsica where his sister is waiting for him to avenge the death of their father.

The film portrays the events on the day King Henri III of France arranged for Duke Henri de Guise to be murdered.