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.

Nénette, a promiscuous pipe-smoking girl, loves Claude, a gangster who has just pulled off a gainful heist. They both drive to Le Havre from where they plan to set sail for Desirade Island. But in Le Havre, Claude meets Raymond, a shipyard worker and former vet friend of the Indochina War, who offers to accommodate him. Claude accepts but, as a token of his "gratitude", he seduces Raymond's wife. In despair, Raymond, who in the meantime has lost his job, jumps off a cliff. Shadowed by a detective, Nénette becomes his mistress, knowing full well that Claude will be arrested because of her.

The story is based on Voltaire's tale "Le monde comme il va" ("The world as it is"). Sent by the genie who presides over the destiny of Persepolis (Paris!), the Scythian Babouc carefully informs himself of everything, to tell the genie whether or not to destroy the city. This is the pretext for a series of interviews, scenes taken on the spot or reconstructed in the studio. We meet a musician who lives for his art and a Marxist historian, both of them optimists in the end; but also a war widow and an economically weak old lady: while the "fureur de vivre" gives free rein to the Golf Drouot and socialites hide their turpitudes behind a façade of good manners. A large, poorly housed family bravely faces up to its fate, and the children are happy; a working-class household talks about the union struggle, inhumane working conditions and reasons for hope. Finally, a poet sums it all up by talking about his commitment to the service of mankind.

Three little criminals get a tip for a great coup with lots of money in it. Unfortunately they lack the starting funds to buy the required welding torch. So they persuade their successful colleague Alphonse to join their team. But the well thought-out coup fails, and Alphonse is the only one of them who ends up in jail for several years. When he's released, he's out for revenge.

Juliette is a young woman who just can't help lying. She lies to her sister, Sophie, to Sophie's fiancé Martin, and to all the men she attracts with her womanly charms. But when she falls for an older man, a 40-year old lawyer, her reputation as a liar precedes her and she cannot convince him that she really does love him…