Hippolyte, the titular oddball, is a far from typical country lawyer. He has been happily married to the woman of his dreams for 15 years, but has an incurable penchant for practical (or rather impractical) jokes.

After a one-night fling, Florence Lacaze, a married woman, finds her lover's dead body in a hotel bathroom. Drawn into a hunt by police, Florence is forced to defend herself and uncover the awful truth.

A teacher, driven to exasperation from insults and insubordination, takes her class hostage.

The film is set against the backdrop of the Algerian War. A determined French commander, who believes Algeria belongs to France, must deal with a soldier who rebels when asked to execute an Algerian freedom fighter. The finale is set in the blistering desert as the soldier seeks to escape

A famous, ruthless writer takes a handsome young worker, with aspirations of becoming a tightrope artist, as his lover and protege, but suffers tragic consequences when he later discards him for another youth.

Mathilde, a young dancer with a promising career ahead of her, receives a letter from a "chain letter" as she is about to leave on a tour. On the way she reads to her friend Sophie all the disasters that supposedly should befall those who break the chain by not sending someone else the letter. Mathilde finds this funny and isn't worried at all. But on the first stop of her tour, the young dancer falls victim to a series of strange accidents.