Under the regime of Louis XVIII. Years after Waterloo, Napoleon's loyal officers live in retirement on half-pay. Useless and idle, they have lost their prestige and keep meeting in the hope of the Emperor’s return. When Napoleon dies, they decide to plot the rise to power of Napoleon II.

A courier carrying a large sum of money intended for Bonaparte's army is attacked. A miscarriage of justice will lead an innocent person to the guillotine.

Out of love for an actress, Isabelle, the Baron de Sigognac joins a traveling troop en route to Paris. When an actor dies, he takes over his role: that of Captain Fracasse.

The gypsy dancer Cartacalha is elected queen of the gypsies. She loves a horse breeder, the Galejon, but following misunderstandings and perfidy, she leaves for Paris, invited by a playwright who predicts a total success on stage. Having become a star, she returns to the Camargue where, still abused, she tries to commit suicide.

A biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing the Corsican's career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign) to his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant invasion of Italy in 1797.