A struggling artist buys a talisman that gives him love, fame and wealth. The talisman is a severed left hand, and it works perfectly, in fact, magically. But of course there is nothing free in this world, and after one year the devil comes and asks for his due.

1938, France, Paris, at the Superior Conservatory of Dramatic Art ("Conservatoire Supérieur d'Art Dramatique"). The first-year entrance exams are in full swing. Many applicants, few accepted. Isabelle (Janine Darcey) is one of the few chosen. She joins former students from the second and third years, including François (Claude Dauphin) and Cécilia (Odette Joyeux). They attend the drama class run by Professor Lambertin (Louis Jouvet). The young people, passionate and eager to become comedians, clash in tumultuous love affairs, because by dint of acting, they imagine that life is a farce. François, for example, is in love with Isabelle, who also loves him, but is pursued by Cecilia, his former mistress... "Put art in your life and life in your art!"

This murder mystery is set in a Parisian cafe and examines the mysterious murder of a famed journalist and extortionist who is killed at his table in the cafe. Though the prime suspects are gathered together( including his wife and her lover, the gun-runner, the creditor, and a playboy) and all of them have motives, none of them did it. So whodunit?

An unemployed maid is hired in a music hall to wash the floors. The whim of a screenwriter makes her go on stage in the most basic outfit. A revelation, success is at his doorstep! However, the young woman would prefer a virtuous life and a serious marriage to the easy but immoral existence offered to her by the world of entertainment.

A washerwoman works so long for the same bosses that she gets to like their young son very much. One day she is unjustly accused of robbery, and dismissed. She suffers in her loneliness, until the day she hears that the boy is terminally ill, and there's no medical hope for him. She comes back and sits by him, praying to Saint Thérèse de Lisieux - and the miracle happens.

Believing that her husband is cheating on her, Jacqueline decides to take revenge and goes to find Ernest, a chilled sigh. But in her bachelor apartment, she cannot decide to push her revenge to the end.

At the turn of the last century, a beautiful spy takes advantage of a handsome officer to get across the Russian border without her passport. They fall in love. But the Grand Duke also falls in love with the young woman, who has in fact been assigned to kill him. A jealous mistress kills the spy before she can commit the crime.

A cabaret singer in Barcelona sacrifices her feelings for an exiled young Frenchman who had been falsely accused of a crime, when the sister of the real culprit seeks the exile out.

Ruined by his competitor, the banker Saccard decides to set up a new business.

In 1721, at the end of his career as a bandit, Cartouche, touched by the grace of an honest young girl, and falling into the hands of justice under the charge of the father of his beloved, asks as a last resort, that the young girl may, before her execution, come and forgive her.

A boy is sent to a reformatory for a small fault. He runs away and tries to kill himself when the gendarmes want to catch him. His parents arrive in time and the disaster is avoided.