Three sketches that all start in the police station, where Léa, La Pintade and the brigadier himself tell their little stories. The story of Danielle, who bamboozled the impresario Mortimer so well that he made her his wife; the story of the sad little Simon, deprived of a father and unable to stand the mockery of his friends; and the story of the daughter of an ex-convict who - by golly - steals a statue on the day of her First Communion.

It all begins with the discreet romance between the Creole maid Lea Mariotte and her young boss, George Brissac, an amoral bourgeois who plans to inherit his uncle's fortune and marry a young woman from a good family. After an incident where she kills a man, she is saved from the gallows by Fabian, a ship's captain, who has personal reasons for antagonizing the Brissacs. He takes care of her and falls in love with her, but doesn't tell her. She, in turn, takes the opportunity to return to her lover Brissac's arms, forcing him to marry her after seeing him murder his uncle.