After fleeing from his foster family, 11-years-old Khamsa returns to the gypsy camp where he was born. With his cousin, Tony "The Midget", Khamsa dreams of getting rich with cock fights. Nothing seems to have changed since he left, the card games, the Mediterranean Sea... Until his best friend, Coyote, meets Rachitique, a small-time crook. Very soon they pass from stealing scooters to armed robbery, and Khamsa quickly spirals down into delinquency.

Franssou, a charming Parisian English teacher, who shares part of her life with a boring middle-aged lover, dreams of another life. So, when she unexpectedly inherits 50,000 euros, she grasps the opportunity and goes to the French Riviera in order to take it easy in luxury. In the four-star hotel where she rents a room she comes across Stéphane, a strange guy who is in the process of arranging Elton John's next coming to the place. Intrigued by the noisy ostentatious fellow, she follows him until she finally comes into contact with him. She knows Stéphane is at bay and decides to take advantage of it.

It's a grim world of prostitution, drug dens, transvestites, junkies and murderers. The seediest side of urban life is examined in this tragedy. The film follows the complex, interwoven lives of four characters as they live their harsh and gritty nocturnal lives on the city streets. The main characters are Fifi a pickpocket who is simultaneously involved with Divine, a transvestite hooker and Vera a peep show dancer who refuses to be a hooker. Vera lives with her would-be pimp Jesus le Gitan, a small-scale drug dealer. When the area riff-raff become embroiled in hostilities, two of main characters are slowly killed in horrible ways. Fifi is then left to avenge their deaths.

Her parents throw a birthday party for her, but most of the guests are middle-aged, and she feels left out at her own party, until Marbeuf persuades her to join in the dancing, during which she displays an impressive cleavage while her mother looks on disapprovingly. Then there's a slow tune and the only young male guest at the party (Pjotr Stanislas) asks her to dance. During the dance they sneak into an alcove and have sex, hidden (but not very well) by some flimsy strands forming a curtain. Her mother discovers them in flagrante and Iris is thrown out of her home.

The old Valmorin died 200 years ago. The notary tells the family about the inheritance: the one who is terminally ill will receive the money. They all try their luck with getting ill before the other so one family member pretends to be deaf, another pretends to have a terrible back ache and so on...