On the meandering Canal St. Martin, at the Parisian Hôtel du Nord, a nearly fatal gunshot separates a dejected young couple. But, amid a sad but beautiful panorama of lively characters, love has the final say. Can life be a fairy tale?

A little peasant girl claims to have been raped. The detective who arrives in the village discovers that it is a set-up, but at the same time reveals carefully hidden and very surprising truths about each.

A wealthy banker who takes his accountant's name after multiple incidents is forced to pass off his girlfriend as his daughter. But the truth is coming out. The banker's wife then favors the marriage of the young girl, which creates a new intimacy in her household.

La Venus D'Or (Golden Venus) was based on Business, a play by Pierre Sabatier. Mirielle Balin stars as Judith, the mistress of ruthless oil magnate Harfstrong. What Harfstrong doesn't know is that Judith is a spy for his hated business rival. When he does find out, he cannot get rid of her because she knows too much about his own crooked dealings. After several more reels of mutual betrayal and recriminations, the story suddenly shifts to the "good" characters, clean-limned young pilot Andre and his sweetheart Michelle. Set up as a fall guy for the villains, Andre somehow emerges from the experience none the worse for wear.

Juliette, an innocent woman, is wrongly sentenced to prison for attempted murder. After her release, she married an industrialist to whom she did not speak of her tumultuous past. But, victim of a rampant blackmail, she cannot continue to hide her prison past and the scandal breaks out.

A poor wretch, who has just been hired as a music-hall artist, in spite of himself becomes the tenant of a particular Parisian building.

Father Vincent is trying to build a church in the California neighborhood. Greeted by stones, he must face a sinister band of deviants excited by a shady cabaret performer. The abbot resists, gradually builds his church and regenerates all the wretches with whom he lives and especially the hardest, Bibi.

Tonio, pretty Micheline's fiance, meets Georgia ,a gypsy who makes advances to him.

René Sabin, engineer, disappointed by failures, leaves his village in the South to go to Paris with friends. In the capital, he befriends dubious people, in particular Alex Krakow who does not disdain shady business. Then comes the war. René is mobilized then returns to the country, and finds with joy his fiancée.

"Menaces" deals with the months before WW2 in a hotel :t he fear of the impending war never leaves the guests of an hotel in Paris.