In the docks of Bordeaux a well-known homosexual was murdered. Police Inspector Michel Verta starts investigating, when he falls in love with Bernard, a handsome young musician. This not only threatens his family life but also his integrity, for he is married with a child and Bernard is one of the murder suspects.

Two men break out of prison; a rival gang ambushes them. One is mortally wounded and tells the other, Mickey, to take him to the estate of a retired robber, Noel, who lives in comfort with his lovely and beloved wife, Nicole. The man dies, and Mickey, a menacing hothead, demands money of Noel. A few days later, Mickey returns to the estate, shoots up a dinner party and threatens them again. Noel sends Nicole to an hotel and goes to his old gang to help him hunt down the dangerous Mickey. Mickey has other problems, too, including heartache for a daughter he hardly knows. Young, eager cops tail Nicole, and all are on a complicated collision course.

In this story of friendship and reproductive rights, 14 years in the relationship between two very dissimilar women are chronicled. Pauline is a middle-class city girl, at odds with her very conventional family. Suzanne is several years older, a country girl with two illegitimate children and another (whom she cannot support) on the way. Pauline loans Suzanne money for an abortion. At this point, the two separate and communicate mainly through postcards. Some years later, they meet at an abortion rally, and they have many adventures and stories to share with one another.

Servais Mont, a freelance photographer who works taking compromising photos, gets fascinated by Nadine Chevalier, a tormented low-budget movie actress married to an eccentric film photo collector.

During the Second World War, the son of a Grenoble collaborator went up to his grandmother's house on the Vercors plateau to wait for the war to end without him. On July 21, 1944, German troops overran the plateau. Forced to flee, he joins a small group of Resistance fighters and civilians, and struggles to survive for three days and nights.

Based on the play by Victor Hugo, portraying the rise, fall and execution of Fabiano Fabiani, a fictional favourite of Mary I of England.