Claudius finds a foal and takes it home to his boss. The men who stole the animal are looking for him. Claudius names him Champignol and trains him for racing. When he grows up, Champignol wins a regional race. But the thieves return, and Claudius is forced to do odd jobs to keep his horse.

A schoolboy remembers his last holiday in the big house of his family in the country, before it was sold.

The story of a French officer who is assumed dead during the Napoleonic Wars, but returns ten years later to a very different France, both on a political and personal level. The film is based on the novel Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac.

Mademoiselle Bressac is a bossy spinster who manages "Le Clos", her estate, with an iron hand. But is she really a bad person? Her manners are abrupt but they only hide a heart of gold. Doesn't she bring up four orphans, Dominique, Fabien, Chantal and Jean? And as if it were not enough, she has accepted to educate another child, her niece Patricia, entrusted to her care by her irresponsible father. Thanks to her, the five young people have grown up in harmony and now they are about to find their place in society. Two of them, Jean and Patricia, who love each other, live only for the estate.