In this fast-moving fantasy, an unsophisticated student escapes from a boarding school to become, after many trials and tribulations, the "toast of Paris."

Judex the vigilante enjoins crooked banker Maurice-Ernest Favraux to distribute his ill-gotten fortune to the city's poor. The thugs decide to kidnap the financier's daughter.

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.

An art historian has an affair with a young saleslady while his disaffected wife cheats on him in turn. Both illicit relationships end in little boys being born around the same time.