Antoine Mouret, an authoritarian restaurateur, is the head of a large family where, for reasons of interest, people only marry cousins. But some have other plans, Marcus especially when he meets a passing circus girl.

The action takes place under the Restoration, at the Château de Savigny, near Nerville, a devout and prudish little town in the Cotentin region. Doctor Torty is the doctor. He tells a story of which he is the only one to know the secret, that of a criminal couple, without any remorse. The pretty Hauteclaire Stassin, daughter of the master of arms, meets the Count of Savigny, married to the noble and languid Delphine. Madly in love with the count, Hauteclaire joined the castle as a servant. Shortly after, the countess died of poisoning. Will the guilty lovers go unpunished?

Tsar Alexandre II meets a young student, Katia. He understands that he loves her and try to send her away but they end up seeing each other again and becomes his mistress. With the help of Katia, Alexandre prepares a liberal constitution, but these reforms make him hostile to the more privileged subjects without satirising the revolutionaries against the regime.

The artist Edouard Lavigne falls in love with a young girl but must quickly leave her because her parents are opposed to this relationship. Edourd's son will go in search of this woman and will thereby meet her daughter. About a love story that continues from one generation to the next.