Bad financial conditions compel an aristocratic family to do strange work.

A well-to-do bourgeois, Tartarin lives in Tarascon, a small southern town, among friends who, like him, love hunting "à la casquette", gossip, aperitifs and thought-provoking journeys. Imaginative like all his compatriots, Tartarin ended up believing he had once been to Shanghai, so fervently did he recount his illusory adventures. It was even rumored that Tartarin was about to leave for Africa to hunt wild beasts, and this was so insistent that the brave man, urged on by his friends, was forced "for the sake of honor" to embark. He arrives in Casablanca, surprised to discover a modern city and not a single lion. But a charming Moorish woman, Baïa, seduces him, and Tartarin indulges in the "delights of Capua". This euphoria is short-lived: Baïa disappears, a false prince, mostly a swindler, finds a replacement and sets off on a hunting expedition in southern Morocco, which will only earn Tartarin the loss of his savings and a blind old lion dragged along by two beggars.

Émile Durand, an insecticide manufacturer, is appalled to learn that his son Gérard has fallen in love with Suzy, the daughter of a travelling theatre company. Realising his father will never favour the union, Gérard joins the company on their next tour. In an attempt to heal the rift, Durand’s wife goes after Gérard and ends up performing in their next play…

A police commissioner lives with his two children, wife, mother-in-law and maid. But he discovers that he has been poisoned with arsenic, and that the culprit must be someone close to him.

A turf war between two French villages against a soccer backdrop... Claudius, goalkeeper for Fouzy's team, is traded for a cow and becomes Champignol's new goalkeeper. During the final, he is transformed by the appearance of the beautiful Solange. He wins the cup single-handed.

The Count of Courvallon, whose gallant exploits have made the headlines, has uncoupled and lives in a pleasant estate in the C te. He has a son, Edouard, and a stylish valet, Antonio. This peaceful life is disrupted by a battalion of penniless girls living in a neighboring villa. Luisella has the nerve to introduce herself to André de Courvallon as his daughter, and immediately her comrades follow suit. The supposed father is not fooled, but his son takes it badly, especially as he has fallen in love with Luisella. Fairy tales always have happy endings.

Professor Charles Buisson, astronomer and Nobel Prize winner, has just discovered a nova. He informs the other observatories by telephone. Just as he thinks one of them is calling back, he finds himself on the line with a young woman threatening suicide at the Ruban Bleu cabaret, if her lover hasn't joined her by midnight. Intrigued, the professor decides to go and prevent the unfortunate woman from committing suicide. One of his students, who earns her living as an understudy in a knife act, helps him in his investigation, while the school principal and a policeman suspect him of being a prankster or even of selling drugs. For the scientist, it's an opportunity to discover a world of music-hall that he'd never known before: "I thought I knew the sky chart by heart, but there's one planet that was totally unknown to me: Earth. I'll be back!