Begins with B&W prologue about new female staff at Stock Exchange. In style of dramatic sitcom, about a woman who investigates the stock market and tries to convince her husband to invest.
Thomas Crimmins is a new warder, or guard, in an Irish prison. He is young, naive, and idealistic, determined to serve his country by his part in meting out justice to criminals.
When a worker digging up a rose bed in the garden of a rich, influential factory owner uncovers a skeleton, suspicion spreads: Is the man who is so respected in the town possibly a murderer?
Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual.
Olivier, a handsome but callow and moody young student, picks up an enthusiastic actress during a theatre rehearsal, and is introduced to her acquaintances -- a group of jaded rich kids who spend their time storming around the Riviera harassing passersby, throwing wild parties and following all the latest trends.