La Belle Revanche

As the red headed boy writes in his school book, a family is a group living under the same roof who can't stand each other.

Mademoiselle Bressac is a bossy spinster who manages "Le Clos", her estate, with an iron hand. But is she really a bad person? Her manners are abrupt but they only hide a heart of gold. Doesn't she bring up four orphans, Dominique, Fabien, Chantal and Jean? And as if it were not enough, she has accepted to educate another child, her niece Patricia, entrusted to her care by her irresponsible father. Thanks to her, the five young people have grown up in harmony and now they are about to find their place in society. Two of them, Jean and Patricia, who love each other, live only for the estate.

Some, like Ravier de l'Orne are born... masters, but ,like him, do not live up to their rank. Others, like Gustave Morillon, are... born masters, even if, like him, they are valets. Morillon will indeed prove better at bridge than his master and will eventually win the affection of Antonia, a lively foreigner Ravier also coveted.

The lover of an Italian revolutionary offers herself to Napoleon in exchange for her sweetheart's life.

Wealthy American Patricia comes to spend some time at her uncle's place in Paris. While out on her own for the evening she meets pseudo-Russian prince Vladimir in a bistro.

Claude, who temporarily replaces his father at the head of a department store, falls in love at first sight with a pretty female customer. He finds out that she is named Solange and that she is the goddaughter of Professor Hauteclerc, who runs a private psychiatric hospital. To come closer to the girl of his dreams, Claude has a crazy idea: he pretends to be mad so as to be placed in Hauteclerc's institution.

A young aspirant follows without much enthusiasm sailing lessons and gradually realizes the beauty of the sailor's trade.

Agnès Bonnardet leaves her parents to marry Claude Sironi, a painter who becomes famous but loses his talent. Meanwhile Agnes acquires a style of her own as an artist, which makes Claude jealous of his young wife. One day, he sends one of his own paintings to the Bazar de la Charité, a very trendy Paris department store, instead of one of his wife's works as ordered. Afraid of her being mad at him, he locks her up in the cloak room. A dreadful fire suddenly breaks out and sets the building ablaze.

"Olivia" captures the awakening passions of an English adolescent sent away for a year to a small finishing school outside Paris. The innocent but watchful Olivia develops an infatuation for her headmistress Julie and through this screen of love observes the tense romance between Julie and the other head of the school Cara in its final months.

Mrs. Vargas has decided that her daughter Alma will marry Duke Pablo Dominguez, a good match for her, but not to the young lady's taste. Knowing that discussion was pointless, Alma decided to run away rather than consent to a union she found repugnant. A brave truck driver takes her to the South of France, where she sets sail for the Balearic Islands. On the boat, she meets two friendly stowaways, Miguel and Pierrot. Penniless, Alma finds work in an inn deserted by customers. Miguel and Pierrot manage to get themselves hired to liven up the room with their songs, and they soon attract a large, mostly female, clientele.

Safecracker Eddie Chapman is languishing in prison on the island of Jersey when the Nazis arrive. An adept manipulator of situations, Chapman convinces the Germans to use him to spy on the British. And when the would-be traitor arrives home, he convinces the English to use him as a double agent -- in exchange for a full pardon.

Chéri-Bibi is an ex-convict who undergoes plastic surgery in order to resemble his rival for the hand of Cecily. Once he emerges from the bandages, Cheri-Bibi is plunged into a series of melodramatic misadventures.

In November of 1942, the French submarine, the "Casabianca,", escapes from German-held Toulon, and, upon joining the Free French forces at Algiers, is sent on a secret mission to Corsica to take two secret-service agents to make contact with the underground there. The agents contact the Marquis resistance forces, and learn they are ready to revolt but lack the needed arms and ammunition. The submarine is sent back to Corscia with the necessary weapons for the resistance-fighters, and also returns with trained troops to assist the resistance forces in attacking the Germans.

Now that the world conflict is over, five inseparable wartime buddies swear eternal friendship now to each other. But there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. Jean becomes a postman, Marcel a boxer, Roger an actor, André a student and Philippe remains what he has always been, a young man of good social standing. Roger, who can't find any role, is introduced through his singer sister Valérie, to Frédo, a shady nightclub owner.Roger soon becomes one of Frédo's henchmen. To make matters worse, he swipes Jean's fiancée, Simone. Marcel, who loses fight after fight, ends up joining Fredo's gang as well. André, who wanted to redeem the faults of his father during the Occupation, gets killed in the Indochina war. Marcel is shot down while taking part in a robbery. In her turn, Valérie is bumped off by an accomplice of Fredo and Roger is sent to jail.

Stéphane Petitbourgeois is having trouble with his son-in-law Hubert, who has an extra child every year and is expecting his ninth, making thirteen people in the same apartment. However, a competition promises twenty million to the youngest grandfather of twelve grandchildren. Stéphane begins to encourage Hubert. But Pat became sterile from that day on. Finally, after two years, a child is announced. In fact, triplets were born, and after a few twists and turns, Stéphane became the youngest grandfather of twelve grandchildren.

End of WW2 : the German officers lock all the men between 18 and 65 into the "Fort National" on an islet in Saint-Malo.