Cigalon (Alexandre Arnaudy) manages a restaurant in a small town in Provence. A chef with a high opinion of his past culinary achievements, he makes no effort to attract customers and is rude to those who venture into his establishment expecting to be fed. To Cigalon, gastronomy is the greatest of all the arts, and so he is naturally aghast when a former laundress named Madame Toffi (Marguerite Chabert) opens a restaurant next door to his. Madame Toffi does not share his elevated notions and intends to serve meals to the general public - an appalling prospect! While Cigalon's restaurant remains empty, Madame Toffi's is always busy. To prove he's the better chef, Cigalon must now start catering to the whims of paying customers or be forced out of business.
An independently wealthy collector of objets d'art tries to influence an artist's model away from marrying a notorious scoundrel and to help an Asian importer raise money for a son's surgery by buying a sacred statuette of Buddha, the sale of which the importer believes will curse him; therefore, the importer secretly plans to poison the collector after receiving the cash and keep the statuette in his possession.
Men on horseback and their dogs are hot on the trail of a sly fox. In this takeoff on the old Pied Piper fable, the hungry fox gets in the way of the flute playing.
To escape dreary country life, a count travels to Italy with a friend every year. Instead of the alleged purchase of horses, the reason he gives to his mother as to why he needs to travel to Italy, he spends his time chasing after the ladies.
Greed, ambition and hunger-for-power drive John Hart, a New-York-City stock-market broker, into crooked dealings and deception, but he doesn't realize that those he ruined will seek vengeance.
Florence in 1848. There is a strong political tension in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Giovanni, a young Neapolitan composer who has just arrived in the city, accidentally comes into contact with some liberals and is convinced to compose the hymn of the Volunteers.
Adalbert "Mussu" Koikkalainen inherits 9,000 marks from his uncle. To buy a milk shop, Koikkalainen needs another thousand marks and work experience, so he applies for a job at the department store Sampo, where he is hired as a scapegoat to receive customer complaints.
Everyweek Newsmagazine editor Richard Kurt pursues famous free-spirited portrait artist Marion Forsythe on her return to the states from Europe, seeking to convince her to write her biography as a feature for his magazine.