Two people, a Frenchman and a Jewish German woman, meet on a train while escaping the German army entering France.

Basil Hallward is a mediocre painter. His exhibitions owe their success to his social position and nothing more. But one day Basil meets Dorian Gray, symbol of youth and a certain beauty.

Jockey Jack has a bill open with a gangster just released from jail. He somehow manages to parry the gangster's knife attack backstage at a theatre and the latter ends up dead being put into a double bass case. A day later the gangster mysteriously has disappeared, but it turns out that he was carrying a bet ticket for a horse race now worth over a million. A turbulent run for the money begins.

Over the course of one night, a gang of twelve criminals carry out a commando-like raid on a small town.

Idris is a young shepherd in the desert of Tunesia. One day a jeep drives by and a woman takes a picture of him; she says she's from Paris and promises to send him a copy. But when nothing arrives during the next months, Idris becomes worried. His father advises him to get his "face" back or bad things may happen to him. So he sets out to Paris... and discovers Paris as a world full of strange things and weird behavior.

This 2-part TV film, adapted from an autobiography, tells the childhood of writer François Cavanna, son of an Italien emigrant and a French mother.