A youngish sales employee of a computer firm is blackmailed into helping a group of mysterious Bulgarian industrialists who have come to his office. A government contract is being sought for a businessman who is in danger of bankruptcy.

A young couple of burglars, waiting for trial, marry in jail. Annick writes down her observations of the women's ward. When she hears that her lover must serve a twice as long prison sentence, she plans their escape.

Félix de Vandenesse's youthful love for the beautiful, inaccessible Madame de Mortsauf, who devotes her life to a half-mad husband and two fragile children. Madame de Mortsauf maintains a friendly, tender relationship. But when she learns of the young man's affair with an Englishwoman, she dies of jealousy and regret.

Diego is one of the chiefs of the Spanish Communist Party. On his way from Madrid to Paris, he is arrested at the border for an ID check but manages to get free. When he arrives in Paris, he starts searching for one of his comrade to prevent him from going to Madrid where he could be arrested.

Jean-Baptiste Rousse, nicknamed Noble Coeur, a journeyman carpenter in a village in Bigorre, was deported in 1942. On his return, he realizes that his compatriots have let the wood reserves on his building site be stolen. After an altercation with the mayor, he decides to take justice into his own hands and, with the help of his son Roland, cuts down the trees in the communal forest to pay him back. The mayor alerts the police. Noble Coeur takes refuge in the bell tower and, when the mayor refuses to let him bring in his wood, he demolishes it with an axe.