A young aspirant follows without much enthusiasm sailing lessons and gradually realizes the beauty of the sailor's trade.

Middle-aged attorney Pierre falls for a young woman who dances in a discotheque to work her way through medical school. The lovestruck lawyer can't bring himself to leave his wife over the young woman. When the dancer's wealthy suitor is murdered, Pierre is accused of the crime.

For 25 years now, under the Provence sun, Antonin, a farmhand, has shared his work and everyday life with a horse named Ulysse. What a shock when Pascal, the farmer, tells him he has decided to sell Ulysse to a picador for being too old. Not only will he be separated from his faithful companion, but he is well aware too that the arenas of Arles mean death for Ulysse. Being unable to stand such injustice, Antonin runs away from the farm in the company of Ulysse. Together, they go through the Lubéron, the Baux de Provence, the Alpilles, the Crau and the Vaccarès. Yet, their journey is no pleasure cruise, specially when it comes to crossing National Road 7. After a visit to Marcellin, an old friend of his, Antonin sets off again with Ulysse, this time towards the Rhône River.

David Levinstein, a young Jewish boy whose parents have been arrested and killed by the Nazis, is taken in by Monsieur Ray, the head of his school. Unfortunately for him, Donnadieu, a pro-Nazi schoolmaster, denounces him to the Gestapo and he is sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. After being released in 1945, David attempts to live normally. He even marries Jacky, the woman he has fallen in love with. But fifteen years pass and the taste of revenge invades him and becomes irresistible. He eventually traces the teacher who gave him way.

François Merlin, nicknamed "The Jackal", returns to France after many years in America. He meets up with his sister Mishka, who makes her living from an antiques business. François has a highly developed seduction technique, and his victims unsuspectingly carry out the foreign missions he sends them on, from which they never return. Ranko, the Parisian kingpin of this kind of business, can't bear to see himself competing, and a fight to the death begins between the two crooks.

In the south of France, the body of a 22-year-old American tourist, Candice Strasberg, is discovered in the middle of the scrubland. Two days of rain prior to the discovery of the body made it difficult to collect evidence at the scene, as the rain had washed away the footprints. Using the victim’s diary, the police are attempting to piece together her movements. The investigation is entrusted to Gaston Delarue, the public prosecutor of Tarascon; Gérard Souffries, the investigating judge; Commissioner Bonetti of the Marseille police; and Divisional Commissioner Bretonnet of the Paris police. Among the six suspects is Bernard Vauquier, the son of the President of the Senate. The investigation proves to be as complicated as it is sensitive. But who murdered or killed Candice Strasberg? Screenplay adapted from ‘La Pieuvre’, a novel by Paul Andreota, published in 1970.