Film comprised of six vignettes each illustrating one aspect of life in the French capital, each set in a different area of the city.

In a small, gloomy town, a killer is on the prowl, forcing the residents to shut themselves away in their homes. Despite this oppressive climate, Wendy continues to receive her lover in her home and to revel in an impossible love. But one night, the dangerous criminal sees the young widow at her window and decides to knock on her door.

Delphine Seyrig plays a middle-aged woman coping with an ungovernable present and holding out hopes of escaping to a more pleasant past. She leaves her current residence to retreat to her provincial French hometown. Here she dreams of locating and rekindling an old love. Seyrig is less inscrutable here than in her debut feature-film appearance Last Year in Marienbad (61), though the character is just as complex and difficult to please. Grain of Sand was released in France in 1983 as Le Grain de Sable.

A student demonstration in Paris leads to an unexpected reunion between two childhood friends.

The film follows a famous scientist who rules over his errant disabled daughter with an iron fist. He's meticulous and tyrannical, while she is impetuous but equally cruel in her own immature way.

A woman leaves her husband and marries another man without divorcing the first.

Danton and Robespierre were close friends and fought together in the French Revolution, but by 1793 Robespierre was France's ruler, determined to wipe out opposition with a series of mass executions that became known as the Reign of Terror. Danton, well known as a spokesman of the people, had been living in relative solitude in the French countryside, but he returned to Paris to challenge Robespierre's violent rule and call for the people to demand their rights. Robespierre, however, could not accept such a challenge, even from a friend and colleague, and he blocked out a plan for the capture and execution of Danton and his allies.

After a businessman is captured by kidnappers, his rescue seems incumbent on a group of filmmakers, rather than a lackluster police force -- a premise that is matched by the rest of this movie. The kidnapping victim rambles on philosophically with his captors, who end up leaving him alone -- thereby providing him with a chance to escape. As he makes a break for it, he is literally hounded by some guard dogs. Then there are also some interviews with people who know one of the kidnappers, though it is not clear why. Neither the victim, nor the kidnappers, nor the filmmakers can compete with the canines, the only protagonists who add some bite to the action.