This loosely plotted coming-of-age tale follows the life of 15-year-old Laurent Chevalier as he stumbles his way over the burgeoning swell of adolescence in 1950s France. After having his first sexual experience with a prostitute and dodging the lips of a priest, Chevalier contracts a case of scarlet fever. When the fever leaves him with a heart murmur, Chevalier is placed in a sanatorium, along with his over-attentive and adulterous mother.

After losing his job, an idealistic adman starts his own agency, putting himself in the crosshairs of his jaded ex-boss.

A womanising violinist and jewel thief must abandon his carefree lifestyle when he learns that his younger brother is part of the leftist revolutionary group responsible for the brutal murders of powerful men. Determined to save the life of his idealistic sibling, the cynical drifter becomes embroiled in a struggle that is not his to fight.

A bored undertaker, married to an ex prostitute, falls in love with a transsexual.