What there is of a plot in this drama serves mainly as a vehicle for the exploration of character. In the story, Michel (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) is a recent widower. As the story opens, he and his friend Andre (Philippe Nahon) are sharing a drink on Christmas Eve. He takes a yellow scarf from a woman he knows (Laura Morante) and teasingly refuses to return it. Throughout the remainder of the film, the scarf reappears, as does the woman, until they wind up in bed together at the end of the film. Before that happens, Michel wanders around Paris, viewing the festivities with a jaundiced eye which serves to heighten the unattractiveness of those he observes. Later he has dinner with a group at Andre's house, and his poor opinion of human nature is amply supported by the events that occur then.

A French man spies on a lovely younger woman across the way. When he's spotted by the woman shortly after being questioned by the police about a local murder, the man's simple life becomes more complicated.

When the investigation on a prostitute murder by the Paris vice department derails, one cop will stop at nothing for revenge.

A young woman, employed in a jewelry store, decides to take advantage of the heist she witnesses. She shoots down one of the burglars; the other will pursue her.

Walter Klozett is a spy arrested and imprisoned by the French Police who know him in possession of stolen booty which the French secret services would like to recover at all costs.

Thomas, in his forties, holds an important post in a slaughterhouse. He is engaged to Marie-Rose, the daughter of the director, whom he hopes to follow later. In a routine examination in the hospital, however, he finds out that he has cancer and his days are counted. The upheaval that he suffers as a result, however, does not take long, his decision is certain: he will use the short time to clean up some bad guys. What else can he do now?

Two crooks think up a scheme to get rich at the expense of the vain and excessive Grand Duke.

Le Bourgeois gentilhomme satirizes attempts at social climbing and the bourgeois personality, poking fun both at the vulgar, pretentious middle-class and the vain, snobbish aristocracy. The title is meant as an oxymoron: in Molière's France, a "gentleman" was by definition nobly born, and thus there could be no such thing as a bourgeois gentleman.

A man of of principle leads a double life: one for his mistress and one he takes home to his wife.