Strange things are happening in the small town of Breuil-le-Château. Provisions from the black market are stolen regularly and wealthy young men, including the squire's son, start vanishing... Ransom demands are sent but with an illegible signature. The investigation is trusted to Ducreux, the local police brigadier. He is assisted by Carlier, a film director in search of locations for his next movie, who has been mistaken for a police inspector from Paris. The two men will have more than their share of surprises.
Simone finds work as a secretary in a bank whose chief of staff expects more than typed letters.
Bastien and Ségard decide to leave France for Canada. They buy tickets aboard a rickety craft, the Tenacity, that never quite seems able to leave port. While stuck there they both fall for the innkeeper's daughter, which causes them to rethink their Canadian notions.
A young man races to save his son's life, but death – incarnated in the child's imagination as the titular Erl King – calls unceasingly.
For some time, the police have been on the trail of a mysterious burglar who has evaded capture whilst executing one daring robbery after another. No one has any clue as to the identity of this elusive criminal and he has come to be known as Monsieur Personne.
Philémon, a wealthy dilettante, is going to do his military service in the provinces under the authority of a colonel friend of his father. Lucien, a lieutenant and Jeanne, the colonel's daughter, are secretly in love with each other; but the colonel plans for his daughter a marriage with Philemon. In the meantime, Folette de Saint-Pageot, a coquette, arrives in the village to claim money from the colonel, while also coveting that of Philémon. To protect himself, the colonel makes Folette pass for Lucien's fiancée. Out of spite, Jeanne decides to marry Philémon. They all find themselves in Folette's room, where they have a frank explanation which clarifies all their links. The lieutenant will marry Jeanne, and Folette will be maintained by Philémon.
A student monitor in a high school in the French provinces has no control over the pupils. He is in love with the caretaker's daughter but his superior, the Dean of Discipline, is also his love rival. Now, the two men are sent on military temporary duty and irony has it that in the Army the Dean is only a private whereas the mere supervisor's rank is ... corporal!
The Bontemps family, like all the inhabitants of the village of Coussy la Chapelle, are passionate about radio. Coco, the fiancé of Jacqueline Bontemps, participates in all the contests and under the name of Mr. Bontemps wins a beautiful Sunday. All arrive in Paris and in the premises of the Parisian Post Office attend popular broadcasts.
An operetta baron has teamed up with a mechanic to carry out insurance scams. During one of their shots, they come up against Boulot, a drunken but clever driver, who ends up having them arrested after revealing their ride.
A scatterbrained girl harasses a lawyer in Cannes.
Story of a rendezvous in Paris which is prepared through telephone calls between a Berlin telephonist and his female colleague in Paris.
A young American businessman, tired of his hectic life, makes an unexpected inheritance which leads him to Normandy. There he discovers, with the discomfort of an old dusty century-old house, the sweetness of life, the love of a beautiful girl and the pleasure of doing nothing.
Eusèbe Bonbonneau, a solicitor's clerk, learns one day that a candidate bearing his name runs for election as a member of parliament. In fact Frazier, a crooked businessman, has urged an accomplice to impersonate Eusèbe, in order to obtain, through this straw man, authorizations for the creation of a casino in Sanceau-les-Nains and to make big money out of it. Eusébe decides to go to Paris to investigate. In the capital he meets Mariska, an exuberant actress who encourages him to try to get elected. As a result, thanks to her the true Bonbonneau becomes a member of parliament and the crook's accomplice is arrested. But Frazier is not impressed and, changing tactics, he starts manipulating Eusèbe.
Boule de Gomme is a child actor. On the set of the film he is shooting he gets on the nerves of the director and of the all crew by being off the beat when he is asked to cry or to laugh. Nobody manages to reason with him, with the exception of a grip who uses the rough way. A good beating and everything comes right in the end. The grip is promoted to the rank of production manager.
Father Sourire, who came to the Château de Villetaneuse to ask for alms, was forced to put on the uniform of the nephew who had fled from the barracks. A soldier in spite of himself, he knows the most frightening adventures which even lead him to a boxing fight from which he will emerge victorious.
Blaireau, a poacher, is imprisoned for an offense he didn't commit. An ambitious lawyer tries to exculpate and glorify him. But, once he's released, this major philosopher destroys in just a few hours the prestige painstakingly built by his liberator.
A very shy person inherits a traveling circus on the express condition that he manages to present a number on the ring.
Gaby, the singer of the "Raymond's Jazz" band, leads Maurice, one of the musicians, to believe that, following a night he spent with her in the hay, he is the father of her child. In fact, the baby is neither his nor hers. He is the son of Madeleine, a young war widow who has entrusted him to her friend Gaby until she is allotted a flat. One day, Maurice happens to meet Madeleine and falls in love with her but he does not dare to confess his "paternity" to her. Fortunately the misunderstanding is clarified and Maurice can at the same time marry Madeleine and adopt her kid.
Paris, 1833. The famous composer Franz Liszt is friends with Chopin who introduces him to Countess Marie d'Agout. Very quickly Liszt falls in love and she, who is already married and has two children, abandons honor and reputation to follow him. They leave to live a great passion in Italy. Then, Franz Liszt gives concerts, the triumph awaits him everywhere. Little by little the fame of the composer will move the two lovers away.