Domineering actor-manager Max Till takes the impoverished Maika Tamara under his wing, turning her into an overnight sensation. But as her fame threatens to eclipse his own, he jealously strives to control every aspect of her life - including her romance with theatre electrician Paul Lebrun.

Adapted from the novel L'Argent by Émile Zola, the film portrays the world of banking and the stock market in Paris in the 1920s.

"Tu seras duchesse!" ("You'll Be a Duchess!") With these words, self-made industrialist Poisson orders his daughter Lucie to marry a wealthy Duke. The duke's father objects to the union, whereupon Poisson arranges another marriage for his daughter, this time to an impoverished and sickly young marquis. Poisson's strategy runs something like this: the Marquis is expected to die soon, whereupon the widowed Lucie will become a marquess, and thus a worthy bride for the Duke. But the Marquis foils these plans by staging a miraculous recovery. The explanation? The Marquis and Lucie have been in love all along, and this was the only way that they could wed with Poisson's blessing. Darned clever, these Frenchmen!.

When his wife storms out of a dinner planned for the American boss, because the dog isn't allowed to be at the table, an engineer substitutes his secretary and pretends she is the wife.

Having fallen madly in love with the daughter of a prison guard, Guignolet climbs the wall to free her. He falls into this prison yard where he ends up being a prisoner in the heart of the delicious daughter of the guard.

France under the Occupation. Executed for treason against the Resistance, Cora, code-named "La Chatte", was left for dead. Recovered and cared for by the Germans, Dr. von Hollwitz brainwashed her to control her and use her as a counter-espionage. In the spring of 1944, her escape was faked so that she could resume contact with the Resistance. She has to scupper the mission of Charles, an engineer with the SNCF, to blow up a train loaded with V1s intended to power the launch pads set up on the French coast to bomb London. But at the last moment, La Chatte regains her lucidity.

Simone finds work as a secretary in a bank whose chief of staff expects more than typed letters.