François Patrice

In France in 1946, the difficult return to civilian life of five deportees and prisoners of war after having lived through the hell of the Second World War.

A criminal making plans to pull off one big score before he retires, comes into possession of secret papers worth a fortune, but dies while attempting the hit. His wife takes those papers for herself, while discovering there are rival criminals, a powerful organization and a sleazy blackmailer.

Henri, the Man from Nantes, comes back to his country after a successful stay in the United States, where he was working for Liski, the drug dealer. With the fame of being a tough guy preceding him, he sets himself to the task of knowing why the French operations were not so profitable - and soon he is master of all links of the organization. He can now get it honed to perfection - or destroy it. Only... the Police are following his every step.

A film made up of four sketches. In Marc Allégret's Sophie, a naive high-school girl invents a love affair with her mother's lover. But it's a guitarist with whom she falls in love. In Françoise, by Claude Barma, a young woman returning to France after living in the United States has an affair with her best friend's lover. In Antonia, by Michel Boisrond, a middle-aged woman tries to convince her ex-lover that she still has many assets to seduce. In Ella, by Jacques Poitrenaud, a Pigalle dancer meets a man in a cab.

A police commissioner lives with his two children, wife, mother-in-law and maid. But he discovers that he has been poisoned with arsenic, and that the culprit must be someone close to him.

Bourgoin uses Philippe to attract customers from another establishment to the nightclub he wants to open in Pigalle.

François, a young student at a provincial college, likes Colette, the daughter of the headmaster. Turlot his colleague, who commits suicide, left a diary where he writes of his relationship with Colette.

For Naval officers duty comes first. Navy Lieutenant Favrel is one of these men. He has promised his wife Simone to stay with her all the time but a last mission aboard a training cruiser makes him realize that his life is tied to the sea. For his part, Navy cadet Pierre Hardouin understands that sailing is his vocation. The prospect of staying home alone while Pierre is on mission, frightens Madeleine, the girl of his heart. But the young woman ends up accepting the ordeal and marrying Pierre.