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Mr. Bouton, a modest carpenter from Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, widower and father of Pinpin, a little boy, marries Mrs. Colombe, mother of Ninette, a little girl. Soon deceived and abandoned, he raises the two children alone. As an adult, Pinpin falls in love with Ninette, but she is in love with Gérard Garnier, whom she soon marries. The children gone, Bouton finds himself alone and one Christmas evening meets Mrs. Marie, a mother who raises her two children alone.

After the death of Napoleon, colonel Montaner plots to restore the Empire, but falls in love with Lise, a beautiful dancer.

An international crook hunted by the police comes to Paris to save his daughter from the clutches of a blackmailer friend of a cabaret singer with eccentric outfits.

An average worker who feels downtrodden at work and home, dreams of becoming a dictator. His aunt has her own fantasy that the love-of-her-life, a fairground magician, will return to her once more.