Helene is based on Helene Wilfur, a novel by Vicki (Grand Hotel) Baum. Madeleine Renaud essays the title role, a young medical student in love with aspiring musician Pierre Regnier (Jean-Lous Barrault). Pierre's father, a noted surgeon, puts pressure on his son to give up music in favor of medicine. Unable to withstand his father's remonstrations, Pierre kills himself, prompting the grieving Madeleine to forget all about romance and dedicate her life to the cause of healing others. Wilfur avoids the usual soap-opera goo by offering realistic performances and credible dialogue (the English-language subtitles were composed by erudite film critic Herman G. Weinberg).

France, the beginning of the XIV century. Every night, Queen Margaret of Burgundy and her two sisters arrange orgies, to which beautiful nobles are invited. The young men were brought blindfolded, and after a night of love they were killed and their corpses thrown into the river, because the queen was afraid that her husband would learn about her adventures. One of her lovers managed to escape death. He knows the secrets of the queen, knows that she once gave birth to a son from him, claims that he has evidence that Margarita wanted to kill her father and blackmails her.

A young man from an aristocratic family tires of the country life and moves to Paris where he squanders his inheritance. Returning to his home with remorse, he reconciles with his father and becomes engaged to his true love.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the Duke of Gerolstein traveled to Paris. Sixteen years earlier he had a daughter who was taken from him by her mother who was chased out of the palace. After many dramatic adventures, the Duke finds his daughter in the person of Fleur de Marie, martyred throughout her childhood by the Owl and the schoolmaster.

Two twin brothers have joined the army, Paul by vocation is a lieutenant of spahis and Georges to escape the police is a sergeant in the Foreign Legion. A snitch having informed the police of Georges' presence at the Legion, he must leave. In Casablanca, Paul helps his brother escape the police by taking his identity to allow him to regain his honor.

A painter short of the readies becomes famous overnight and he and his mate (and model) move into a luxury house. But the man falls for a princess, leaving his partner crying.

Under the regime of Louis XVIII. Years after Waterloo, Napoleon's loyal officers live in retirement on half-pay. Useless and idle, they have lost their prestige and keep meeting in the hope of the Emperor’s return. When Napoleon dies, they decide to plot the rise to power of Napoleon II.

A sailor, who meets a lovely music hall singer during a police raid, falls in love. In a contest at a fair, he defeats a former boxing champ. The ex-champ trains the sailor to become a boxer. After he wins the French championship, the sailor is swayed by easy money and a sultry coquette. The singer goes on a singing tour, and the sailor falls into decadence. He enters the European championship spiritually empty and in bad condition.

A secret message is on a recording, a man who had disappeared for a while may be trying to steal it.His wife, a singer, teams up with a spy chief she has met to confront her husband.

The tamer Nikita marries the girl he had once recruited into the circus but she loves a trapeze artist.

Jean is ten years old and imagines that he is the cause of the misunderstanding that occurred between his parents. He leaves the military institute where he studies and becomes the protégé of an opera singer at whose house, one day, he surprises a thief who blesses him. His parents reconcile at the foot of his hospital bed.

A father allows himself to be accused of the murder of a blackmailer to save his son who is the real murderer. But he is forced to confess, and commits suicide in his cell.

The story focuses on a street in the Parisian banlieue where Italian and French workers live. Their neighborhood will soon be demolished and a mysterious character hides himself in this street.

Marceline, the young wife of the florist Jean, can't help flirting with other men, but her brother Clo-Clo takes the poor husband's side against his sister.

A resistance leader is wounded when the Germans raid his underground print shop. He escapes to the home of a German-friendly Parisian and is helped by her son and daughter. A Jewish doctor also aids him. They all join him in his efforts against the Nazis and derail a munitions train.

1871. Roger Laroque accuses himself of a crime he did not commit to save his mistress, Julia de Noirville, from dishonor. He escapes from prison and is considered dead for fourteen years. Then he returns in the guise of a rich American in order to unmask the real murderer.

The error of an examining magistrate forever tears apart a happy and united family.

The life in Morocco of an officer of the Foreign Legion, Colonel de Joyeuse.

Didier Méreuil, affectionately called Poliche, is in love with Rosine, a beautiful girl, so he does everything to please her. She does not love him, and accepts a seductive airplane pilot who proposes to her. One day, she discovers that the funny man is just a front behind which there is a serious Didier. She will try to make up and live with him - but the gap between them is already too large.