Sophie Chemineau

In 1859, Savoy Alps, Joseph is a peddler who leaves his mountain village to travel through Northern Italy to sell cotton, thread, lace and trinkets. His road will be strewn with pitfalls and encounters, sometimes funny, sometimes pathetic.

Jérémie and Bild, two riders, arrive in a community that lives along the river Fango. It was Mathilde who founded her, a woman who left husband and baby to flee urban society. All live in happiness away from the world, without thinking either of work or money. Bild believes he is the child abandoned by Mathilde, while Jeremiah is attracted to his daughter, Maurine. When Bild dies, Jeremiah learns that he is the son of Matilda and that consequently Maurine is his sister. He takes to flight ...

While chaos and the impending doom of World War II are just over the horizon, the members of an impoverished French family are occupied with their own concerns. Most notable among them are the romance of the teenaged girl with a young socialist and the boy's friendship with a German boy.

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.