The story of how the people of Paris cope with the strains and struggles of war, from the siege of the city by the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian War of 1871 to the invasion by the Germans in World War II.

The life of Thérèse Martin, who entered the Carmel at the age of 15, in 1888, under the name of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, died nine years later, and canonized in 1925.

Verena, a farm servant, gives birth to a little girl and for the happiness of her child, tries for nearly twenty years to bend the selfishness of the seducer who did not marry her. When she returns to the village, she has worn herself out at work, but she has the consolation of seeing her daughter's future assured.

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.

The tamer Nikita marries the girl he had once recruited into the circus but she loves a trapeze artist.

A poor woman forced to sew in a brothel for a living, a museum guard whose daughters party, an old lady with a fiery heart, and a teacher whose daughter is dying of tuberculosis, live in the same building and everyone dreams of love.

A widower sends his son Dédé to boarding school, falls in love with a young woman and gradually neglects the child, not out of disaffection but because of routine. The little boy is helpless: he feels he has been completely forsaken - Fortunately, things improve: Dédé ends up finding a new mummy.

A red-haired boy is his mother's punching bag; only his father's presence is a great comfort to him, but this weak man is under the shrew's thumb. His pain is so great he feels suicidal.

Cashier Maurice Legrand is married to Adele, a terror. By chance, he meets Lucienne, "Lulu", and make her his mistress. He thinks he finally met love, but Lulu is nothing but a streetwalker, in love with Dede, her pimp. She only accepts Legrand to satisfy Dede's needs of money.

Poor Arlette is married off by her well meaning mother to a supposed count who turns out to be a fake and a crook.Arlette seeks out the real count, to whom in name technically she is married.