After finding and adopting a child, a man gets a job at an all-girls school which doesn't allow families. Once the girls find the baby, they become his forty little mothers. At the same time, the child's true mother searches for him.

The daughter of an industrialist takes an interest in the workers and tries to improve their lot. She avoids a strike, and falls in love with an engineer.

The life in Morocco of an officer of the Foreign Legion, Colonel de Joyeuse.