Barny, although a Marxist, is intrigued by the mysteries of religion. In confession, she teases a priest, Léon Morin, but he is a young and intelligent man and ready to discuss anything.

The tragic story of a young orphan girl who is befriended by an innocent but emotionally disabled veteran of the French Indochina War.

Mario di Donati, a deserter from the Italian army, lives in Paris under a false name with Germaine, his French lover. When the latter learns about his hidden past, she feels hurt by Mario's lack of trust in her and she distances herself from him. In despair, Mario surrenders to the law but, at the time of trial, he runs away to join the woman he loves.

Agnes, a lonely teenage girl, and her father befriend an escaped convict, named Joseph, who arrives at their farm in Brittany, France. When Joseph develops an attraction to Agnes, her father threatens to break up the union.

Eloi is a twenty-year-old secondhand goods dealer who does his job without particular enthusiasm. He has a girlfriend, Nénette, but immature as he is, he feels just as happy in the company of Fortunée, his young sister, whose little girl's games he shares as often as he can. The three of them live with Eloi and Fortunée's grandmother, nicknamed by all the "Queen of the Flea Market". In possession of a mirror of Venice, Eloi decides to present it to Dormoy, an antique dealer who keeps up shop in the fashionable districts of Paris. On that occasion Eloi meets and falls in love at first sight with Dormoy's rich mistress. The latter, half-moved, half-consenting, does not discourage him.

A woman from a bourgeois family marries a loveless man. She remembers (or dreams?) a life of adventure and smuggling, hijacking ships at night. She is kidnapped by the leader of the enemy gang, with whom she falls in love.