The crimes and tragedies that tear apart one family seem overblown in the telling, yet this psychological drama about the miseries of one French policeman is compelling throughout. Jean (Pierre Arditi) is a cop and also a failed novelist who was abandoned by his father, brother, and sister after his mother died. The trio move to Paris where they set up an art scam that nets them considerable cash -- something Jean begins to figure out when he joins them for a family reunion. Little by little, he learns that his father is an expert forger, his stepmother's art gallery seems to be involved in the scam, his brother is a derelict and into drugs, his stepmother is a hooker in addition to all of this, and his sister runs an exercise gym for keeping prostitutes in shape. Things get worse -- just when everything seems bad enough, the stepmother is murdered and it is up to Jean to find the killer.

Victim of a shipwreck, a British man is stranded on a deserted island where he manages to survive through ingenuity.

Escaped from jail, Luis finds refuge on a remote island where, it is said, several people have died long ago of a mysterious illness. He discovers a large abandoned villa. One day, a group of people from another time, come in. The villa and the nature around become the theater of strange phenomena…

Araminte is a wealthy young widow. Over a matter of land, she is in conflict with Count Dorimont, whom her mother would like her to marry. In need of a steward, she hires Dorante, a handsome young man without a fortune, whose secret ambition is to win the young woman's heart and hand. It's Dubois, Dorante's former valet, now Araminte's, who, by manipulating all the household staff, hatches a plot based on true, false and mixed confidences, designed to lure Araminte into Dorante's arms. Dorante eventually confesses to Araminte, who forgives him and marries him.

A Roman woman confides at length in a student who has come to rent her a room. At first amused by her interlocutor, she befriends her. She takes an interest in Lorenzo, Teresa's estranged husband, and falls in love with him, leading Teresa to kill her.

In France in the near future, revolt and chaos erupt. A right-wing politician, Philippe Muphand, is set to take control when his lady friend Caroline walks out, announcing she will take up with the first fool she sees. The fool is Serge Laine, a professor and author of the prize-winning "Le voyage qui ne finit pas," headed to the train station for tickets to Barcelona where he and his wife will enjoy a second honeymoon and he will lecture at the university. Caroline seduces Serge, and he soon abandons wife, family, job, and honesty to embrace Caroline, the romanticism of Jack London, and murder.

A new governess arrives at a country house to take care of two seemingly angelic young children. But she begins to suspect that the house is haunted, and that the ghosts mean harm to the children.

Loïc, a chestnut seller, has a mistress who wants a baby. Not daring to admit to her that he had the mumps late in life, he finds other excuses. Until the day he meets Claire, an old girlfriend, who has a little boy. Loïc finds the resemblance between the little boy and himself enormous and is convinced that he is his father...

In the fall of 1963, Anne is becoming a teenager. She lives in Paris with her mother and her older sister, Frédérique. They're just back from summer at the beach with their father. School starts. A turbulent year awaits them both.