In 19th-century France, a little girl follows her two sisters into a Carmelite monastery with the goal of becoming a saint.

It centres on the life of the entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre and his total devotion to studying insect behavior, travelling from Avignon to Paris, from Paris to his death in Sérignan. He is honoured by the French president Raymond Poincaré and his patience, obstinacy and knowledge are also recognised by Napoleon III, the publisher Charles Delagrave and the philosopher John Stuart Mill. They reach their climax in his book, Souvenirs entomologiques.

An unhappy wife who has had a child by her lover lives a daily drama under the watchful eye of her husband who hates them both.

Inspector Dumont and his deputy Inspector Queneau investigate the murder of a young woman. They learn that the victim was pregnant before her death and that she was the mistress of Mario, a shady playboy who had dumped her while she was with child. A doctor is first suspected but is he the real culprit?

A man, a sort of wandering lyrical or melodious tramp, goes into the countryside. He stops at a farm, disturbs the farmer's wife, turns the heads of the young girls and ends up following his path.

Breton doctor René Laennec fights tooth and nail against consumption, all the more desperately as his brother Michaud has just died of it.

Breton doctor René Laennec fights tooth and nail against consumption, all the more desperately as his brother Michaud has just died of it.

Laura has lost her fiancé. Immediately after, an accident happens to her and she becomes blind. Eve, her sympathetic sister, and an understanding doctor imagine having a newcomer, Marcel, play the delicate role of the missing fiance, because their voices are identical. Laure marvels and regains a taste for life. But Marcel falls in love with Eve.

Julien Couturier (Bernard Blier) and his wife Louise (Blanchette Brunoy), a young couple from Auvergne who have come to Paris to try their luck for the first time in their lives, become the owners of the "Café du Cadran" ("Clockface Cafe"). On opening day, they meet the people who will become their clientele. It's a busy place, with regular customers served by two waiters, Jules (Robert Le Fort) and Victor (Charles Vissières). While Julien is comfortable in his role as boss, Louise doesn't quite get used to this urban world, where everything moves faster, especially human feelings. She often misses Marcenait, the village in Auvergne where she and her husband ran the "Café du Commerce". Mr. Luigi (Aimé Clariond), a café customer and violinist who performs at the "Café de Paris", has undertaken Louise's cultural education. He teaches her how to dress and do her hair, while recounting his musical successes and travels, skilfully playing on his undeniable seductiveness...