As the driver of a garbage truck in Arles, Marc-Antoine leads a quiet life with his wife, Mélanie, and their two children. When Amédée's "Fanny" is stolen from the bouliste club, Marc-Antoine offers to repaint another one. As soon as the work is finished, he becomes a local celebrity and, intoxicated by his new-found fame, leaves his family to go with Hélène, the young waitress, to his friend Septime's house in the Camargue to take up painting. Eventually, Marc-Antoine realizes that he is dissatisfied and that his success seems dishonest. He realizes that happiness awaits him with his wife, children and friends, and resumes his simple life without remorse.
Hercule, a young peasant, inherits a Parisian newspaper with a large circulation. The editor-in-chief, Vasco, takes advantage of his ignorance to make corruption prevail.
Auguste, a somewhat simple-minded Provençal fisherman, loves and admires Mireille. This concerns only Maurice, son of an important wholesaler, whom scruples do not stifle.
The reservist Lafleur, having a wife, a mistress and still running after the first petticoat that comes along, his namesake, an active soldier, finds himself embroiled in the vengeance or intrigues that all these women are plotting.
Pursued by a rival gang after a violent robbery, Toni escapes with nearly thirty million francs. On the train to Paris, to avoid arousing suspicion, he has no choice but to threaten an honorable philosophy professor, Justin Mignonnet, with his gun, so that he will carry the loot for him.
A man is too shy to ask a girl out and decides to kill himself. While lying in the road he is rescued by a Doctor who tries to cure him by implanting the heart of a rooster into him, something which suddenly makes him irresistible to women.
Munich cab driver Herbert Sponer picks up American businessman Jack Mortimer at the train station. Suddenly Mortimer is shot while driving and Sponer has to try to avoid being suspected as the perpetrator.
It's a crisp autumn morning. Marta prepares breakfast and goes to work. Little Jenda has a sore throat, so she has to go to her grandfather's to look after the boy.
When a former artisan is tricked into putting his sister up as collateral for a loan by a gangster boss in a crooked gambling casino it sets in motion the story of Ooka Echizen, the famed magistrate of Edo during the reign of Shogun Tsuneyoshi.
