A young country woman in Paris is temporarily drawn to her married, middle aged art teacher before she realizes she belongs instead with people her own age.

A Parisian cocotte at the turn of the century plans to capture a very rich Peruvian for marriage and hires her servant as an uncle who is supposedly supposed to watch over her virtue.

In 1933, a family is divided when the father and one son emigrate to democratic Switzerland while the mother and other son remain in Nazi Germany. The two branches of the family develop along very different paths.