The story of how the people of Paris cope with the strains and struggles of war, from the siege of the city by the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 to the invasion by the Germans in World War II.

Major Labourdette receives an accommodation ticket to spend the night with the widow Martin. Now, there are two Martin widows in the small garrison town, and one of them keeps a house of promiscuous girls. Labourdette gets the wrong landlady and ends up at home. He will keep an unforgettable memory of this night.

A rich man's son has lived a dissipated life and has joined a circus where he shares the courageous and perilous lives of its artists. He falls in love with a young dancer and is loved in return by her. But their passion goes through many vicissitudes.

Men including younger ones flock around a seductive older woman of mixed race, so that she forgets her age.Will she choose the one rightly destined for her?