Marie is nineteen and bored in her little suburban life with no future. In a café, she meets the charismatic and beautiful Gerard. Blinded by adoration, Mary decides to leave her parents and her clerk job to live with the man she considers as the love of her life. But Gerard is a pimp, who soon forces her into prostitution. From within homes to out on the streets, the young woman gradually discovers a world of decay and violence.

In 1822, Toussaint Rouveyre, a former captain in Napoleon's army, returned to his village in the Ardèche after the defeat at Waterloo and a seven-year stay in America. There, he reunited with his family, persecuted by the Restoration regime. In order for his father to give him his share of the inheritance in advance of his permanent move to America, he needs the consent of his younger brother Antoine, a carpenter who is on the Compagnons' Tour de France. When Toussaint learns that his brother, a member of the Compagnons du Devoir (Devoirants) association, has been killed by a companion from the rival association, the Compagnons du Devoir de Liberté (Gavots), he is determined to find the murderer, a certain Tourangeau Sans-Quartier, and avenge his brother. To find this man, he joins the Compagnons du Devoir de Liberté incognito.

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.

Jean-Joachim Goriot, a merchant who got rich during the Revolution, is obsessed with the love of his two daughters, whose social promotion he wants. He endows them richly, ruins himself to pay their debts, but Delphine and Anastasie do not return his affection and abandon him at the time of his death to run to a big ball.

Marceau Léonetti, a competent and energetic officer stops by chance the son of an influential lawyer driving under the influence of alcohol. A few months later, the lawyer falsely accuses Léonetti as being violent and incompetent. As a result Marceau is transferred to a small police station, where he meets young and beautiful Jeanne. Soon they are faced with a tough investigation.

In a factory working for the National Defense, an employee steals a prototype. In charge of the investigation is Francis Coplan.

The directors of a company threatened by a railroad construction project in Africa decide to have the General Secretary of the Franco-African consortium killed. Géo Paquet, known as "Le Gorille", a DST spy, attempts to infiltrate the gang.

Her father having served a prison sentence, there is unending gossiping about Therese's family. Unable to put up with it any longer, the young woman leaves her native village for the canton of Bern where she manages to be hired by Anton Muller, a wealthy, authoritarian farmer. Under the young woman's spell, Anton wants to make his servant his mistress but Thérèse refuses energetically.. Later on, she nevertheless accepts to marry Anton. On the wedding day, she meets Gottfried, her bridegroom's son, and they instantly fall passionately in love with each other.

Making his directorial debut, Robert Hossein also assumes the leading role, playing an escaped convict. Hossein and his fellow escapees cross the path of Marina Vlady, with whom they all fall in love. Alas for our "heroes," Vlady intends to avenge the death of her sweetheart at the hands of Hossein and his confreres. Not only do these heels go to Hell, but they do so with a spectacular flourish. Les Salauds Vont en Enfer was adapted by Rene Wheeler from a play by Frederic Dard.

Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Catherine de Médicis, celebrates her wedding with Henri de Navarre. Officially, it's a rapprochement between the League and the Huguenots. In fact, it was an opportunity to bring all the Huguenots to Paris and kill them all at once. King Charles IX fails in his attempt on Coligny's life. Queen Margot tries to save her husband from the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre by preventing the annulment of his marriage, forcing Henri to share her bed. Two knights from opposing camps are wounded and, saved în extremis, are hidden together by the queen and her cousin. Margot falls in love with one of them, but has to run to warn her husband of a new attack and cannot prevent the two knights from being beheaded.

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