Comte de Larzac, an aging seducer, leaves Paris for Lannemezan. Accompanied by his friend Charmeuil, he goes there to acknowledge the paternity of Jean, a twenty-year old young man who knows nothing about his biological father. Jean, after falling for Jeanne, the daughter of a farmer, now courts Georgina, a middle-class woman of Romanian origin. After Father Jocasse has told Jean that he is Comte de Larzac's son, the young man follows his father to Paris. But he finds it hard to comply with the usages of high society and when his father refuses to consent to his marriage with Georgina, he returns to Lannemezan. Georgina is so upset by the count's refusal that she comes to see him and tells him very candidly about her past life. Moved by her plea, de Larzac drives her back to Lannemezan so that she can marry Jean. What was not expected is that, during the trip, they discover they are close to each other.

Julie and Désirée Clary are courted by the brothers Joseph and Napoleon Bonaparte. Joseph marries Julie and Napoleon is affianced to Désirée. When Napoleon breaks the engagement and marries Joséphine de Beauharnais, Désirée becomes involved with General Bernadotte.

Monsieur Durand-Bidon's mother-in-law is decidedly cantankerous. She never ceases - she who is a duchess - to reproach the latter for his low origins. One morning, at dawn, while he comes home "well watered", he is surprised with a comrade at the bottom of a bathtub. Taken for a homosexual, overwhelmed by Step-Mom, he will never stop trying to escape her and will end up, after many adventures, by learning a somewhat embarrassing secret about the pseudo-nobility of his step-family.

A French-language remake of Douglas Sirk's "The Court Concert" (1936).

Lagardère protects Aurore, the granddaughter of the Duke of Nevers whose deceitful Philippe de Gonzague covets the inheritance.

The life of composer Frédéric Chopin through his youthful love for Maria Wodzińska, a young Polish aristocrat he was unable to marry because of his own situation, considered too modest by the girl's family. On the threshold of death, Chopin remembered his beloved and the piece he composed when he left her: La Valse de l'adieu.