Jean Lerat begins his military service at an army camp. Despite his aunt’s attempts to pull a few strings to his advantage, the unfortunate Lerat manages to get on the wrong side of his bullying colonel…

Brumaire, the director of public relations at the Élysée, is trying to boost the rating of his government.

Thia and Murelli, who live from car stunt shows, make ends meet by carrying out small burglaries. When Murelli's daughter, whom he has tried to keep away from his business falls in love with a young thug, her father feels he must help the couple by including the young man in a heist. Their scheme misfires and forces the group to set up a jailbreak, with unfortunate results.

Rural France, the 1890s. Always in motion, Augustin wanders three times. First, as a youth, while a boarder near Bourges, he's lost in the woods and finds a chateau where an engagement party's in progress: there he falls eternally in love with Yvonne and she with him. Back at school, he hears she is in Paris, so he follows in a vain search and meets a woman, jilted by her lover. In the countryside a few year's later, Augustin's friend François finds Yvonne and brings Augustin to her. They marry, but the next day, Augustin leaves to fulfill a youthful promise he made to Yvonne's brother. François comforts the pregnant Yvonne as they await Augustin's return.