The time is the 1930s and two Soviet spies (both Frenchmen by nationality) have been helping Communist factions during the Civil War in Spain. It is the time of Stalin's iron rule in the USSR, and the two agents are suddenly called to Moscow by the KGB. Knowing that they are in trouble for no fault of their own, fear drives one of them to suicide while the other gets his lover and her child and begins a run for his life, knowing that the KGB will never let him go free.

A couple who live in the French provinces are surprised to inherit a hotel in Paris. These new owners are determined to sell it, but that's without the charms, vagaries, and clientele of this typical inn implanted in a nice neighborhood.

In this rambling comic tale about a man and a wife, with four children, who calmly announce to the children that they want to divorce one another, it is impossible to tell who is dissatisfied with whom about what. They had seemed to be a perfect couple. Their flabbergasted children have mixed feelings, and the most difficult thing about the divorce, besides understanding why it is taking place at all, is deciding what will happen with the couple's numerous pets.

"Le Crabe Tambour" ("Drummer Crab") is the nickname for the mysterious central character, Willsdorff (Jacques Perrin), an Alsatian, whose doomed, out-of-date career is recalled through the tales of three naval officers currently serving aboard a French supply ship in the North Atlantic.