The Woman with the Orchid

A health problem causes a business leader to think about what will happen to his company after his death.

Pioneers struggle to establish a town in the harsh unsettled wilderness of northern Quebec during the depression.

André Garnier, a young pianist, who was sent to deportation following a denunciation, absolutely wants to find his informer. He falls in love with Hélène, the mistress of a wealthy industrialist, Bernier, in whom he soon discovers the man who once sold him to the Gestapo. Bernier is soon found murdered. André deflects suspicion on Jacques, the victim's secretary. Hélène and André's affair ends up being discovered by the police, who seem to see in it the motive for the crime. André surrenders to justice.

Betty marries rich Allan out of interest and drives a wedge between him and his family.

Following a broadcast on the radio, each of the listeners remembers these "little nothings" (the title is borrowed from a play by Mozart), which have often changed their lives. Each of these stories told will prove that a tiny detail in life can change an entire destiny.

Political intrigue and psychological drama run parallel. The queen is in seclusion, veiling her face for the ten years since her husband's assassination, longing to join him in death. Stanislas, a poet whose pen name is Azrael, is a suicidal anarchist, his imagination haunted into hate by longing for this queen who's drawn apart. He enters her private quarters intent on killing her then himself, but they fall in love, in part because he looks like the king. Stanislas wants her to regain political power by appearing to the public, and she tries to convince him to find hope and escape. All the while, the queen's enemies plot to keep the lovers together but to thwart their plans.

An efficiency expert is called in to downsize a trucking company and the employees fight to establish a union to save their jobs.

Toine, the local hunchback, works at the tile manufacturing plant, but during the summer, he gives a hand to Micoulin, the farmer, thereby being able to spend more time close to Nais, Micoulin's daughter. That summer, the estate owner's son, Frederic Rostaing, decides to rest on the farm during his vacation from Law school. But his real motives are to seduce young Nais, whom he knows from their childhood days, after having seen her in town. Who will win the power struggle between the possessive father, the naive daughter, the vile student and the golden-hearted cripple?

A mysterious figure signing himself "The Ferret" keeps sending letters to the police, tipping them off about murders that are to be committed around Paris. Among those caught up in the police manhunt is a fraudulent clairvoyant.

A seasoned lady-killer introduces a series of Decameronic vignettes about men's resourcefulness in seducing women and the price some of them have to pay for it.

Story of the Siberian monk Gregory Rasputin and the hold he exerted over the court of the last Russian czar, Nicholas.

Evanella, who writes the “Horoscope” section of a major newspaper, and her brother Méristo, create with the help of a young journalist, Jean Lassère and the capital of their uncle Amédée, a “Bureau des Prédictions”. Success being expected, they manage to obtain revelations about a gang of gangsters which they publish as predictions. It is success and fortune. Jean marries the newspaper director's daughter and Evanella the director himself.

A toymaker in Poland specializes in building lifesize mechanical men. He builds a chess-playing "automaton" to hide a pretty young Polish activist who is being hunted by occupying Russian forces.

Paul Blanc runs a butcher's shop with his Neapolitan wife, the vivacious Giulia. One night, thanks to sleeping pills received from his brother in Argentina, he dreams of horse racing and sees in his dream the order of arrival of the horses. Giulia praises her husband's gift at the local café. But the turfmen dissuade her from betting on the nags chosen by Paul, who they consider to be real losers! But her vision proves to be right. When her secret is discovered, everyone wants to buy this miracle medicine. But the product is no longer manufactured, as it is considered dangerous and has been banned by the authorities.

Pozdnycheff, a young party animal, destroyed by his lightness the marital happiness of one of his childhood friends who committed suicide. Since then, he is haunted by the memory.