A lord’s servant, Ali Baba, is sent to retrieve a slave for his master, but ends up on an adventure filled with gold, mischief, love, and forty famous thieves instead.

For Naval officers duty comes first. Navy Lieutenant Favrel is one of these men. He has promised his wife Simone to stay with her all the time but a last mission aboard a training cruiser makes him realize that his life is tied to the sea. For his part, Navy cadet Pierre Hardouin understands that sailing is his vocation. The prospect of staying home alone while Pierre is on mission, frightens Madeleine, the girl of his heart. But the young woman ends up accepting the ordeal and marrying Pierre.

Two friends, Tricoche and Cacolet, are partners in a detective agency. Chance has it that Cacolet is hired by Van der Pouf, a rich banker who wants him to watch over his wife Bernardine while the latter, on her part, seeks the services of Thicoche.

A toymaker in Poland specializes in building lifesize mechanical men. He builds a chess-playing "automaton" to hide a pretty young Polish activist who is being hunted by occupying Russian forces.

A student, who wishes to become an opera singer, is helped by a good boy, Saturnin, who improvises as a manager. The student succeeds and becomes famous, without ever forgetting little Denise whom he no longer believes worthy of his love. His guardian angel definitely fixes things.

A young woman is in love with a young writer, winner of the Prix Goncourt. Married to a banker, she must face her husband's anger and the blackmail of a former suitor.

An employee at a jewelry store falls in love with a woman who secretly plans to rob the store.

Taking advantage of their uncle's absence, André and Raymond Rafet organize a New Year's Eve party at his house. The uncle returns unexpectedly, disturbs the party, threatens his nephews to disinherit them and then locks himself in his office. A few minutes later, he is found dead, poisoned.

Following a heartbreak, Aimée, a young girl is taken in by the owners of a café for whom she starts working, and falls in love with René, a sailor who gave her a taste for life.

A scientist who have discovered how to turn salt water into petrol dies before he has revealed his formula. By mistake it's assumed that his assistant knows it although he does not.