A true story of Peter Kurten, a serial killer who committed nine murders and many other offenses in Dusseldorf during the Great Depression era.

Victor is a screenwriter whose last work about the Marechal Pétain is refused by his producer. To add insult to injury, he tells Victor he is paunchy. The unfortunate man becomes obsessed by his weight. He goes out of his way to lose pounds, abetted by his wife, Corinne, who puts him on a reducing diet. He must also go to a health center where he takes exercise. Nothing really works. And one day, in a brewery, he cannot withstand his diet anymore and he has a gastronomic meal. Desperate, he tries his luck at a weight watchers reunion.

All of Europe was affected by the Great Depression of the 1930s, but some parts were hurt less badly than others. France, for instance, was relatively prosperous. In this grim drama, a sturdy Polish boxer and his family have settled into a mining town in northern France because that's where the work is. Like European "guest workers" in the 1990s, the Polish immigrants then were frequently treated badly by the locals. In this drama, the romantic aspirations of the boxer's son are thwarted by the concerted efforts of the local men and his own family's preference that he marry another Polish girl. After his romance fails, the son becomes a union activist and sacrifices a great deal to try to gain higher wages for the miners, but the contract he works out is reneged on by the duplicitous owners.

Spies from several countries try to find out what secrets are hidden in the mind of a young amnesiac girl who has appeared in Paris.

A Paris flea market vendor is transformed into a vigilante after his fiancée is murdered by three vicious thugs on a commuter train. As the revenge-minded young man tracks the killers, a veteran police inspector leads a parallel investigation.

Perdican, his studies completed, returns to his family castle at the same time as Camille, returning from the convent where she was raised. The two young people are promised to each other, but the young girl appears distant. Out of spite, Perdican courts Rosette, a peasant girl, Camille's foster sister who, for her part, announces her plan to take the veil. Perdican announces his marriage to Rosette. On the eve of the wedding, Camille and Perdican finally confess their love to each other. But Rosette, who heard everything, commits suicide, which separates the two lovers forever.

The crew of an aircraft carrier discovers that it is being pursued by a UFO that turns out to be a radioactive probe from outer space. They appeal to the warring countries of Earth to stop fighting and help it to repel the invaders.

Unlucky in love, Alfred tries to commit suicide, only to be thwarted by police efforts to prevent a simultaneous attempt by a nearby young woman. Recovering, the young lady puts him up at her house, as he has run out of places to live. He joins a Parisian sporting team and seems to have transferred his bad luck to a corrupt television boss who is attempting to manipulate the game so that Alfred's Paris team loses.

A great French restaurant's owner, Monsieur Septime, is thrust into intrigue and crime, when one of his famous guests disappears.

Pierre Cohen, a sophisticated Parisian psychologist, goes to his brother's farm in order to protect it from very hostile local landowners.