Mona Dol

Depressed Alain Leroy leaves the clinic where he was detoxified. He meets friends, acquaintances and women, trying to find a reason to continue living.

Two friends from the last war, Pierrot, a bar owner, and Gustave, a police inspector, are in contact with a notorious gang of racketeers in Montmartre. Tired of putting up with Albert the King's demands, Pierrot kills the gangster during a bar brawl. His first instinct is to flee, but on Gustave's advice, he turns himself in to the law. All things considered, he'll be safer in prison than exposed to the reprisals of the "underworld". Pierrot goes to trial. He was acquitted as having acted in self-defense. But his release leaves him open to the vengeance of Bob, one of Albert's accomplices. Pierrot narrowly escapes an ambush, but is finally able to rid himself of the threat hanging over him, thanks to the friendship of Inspector Gustave, and finally reunites with the companion of his life, Dora, who has never stopped trembling for him.

In 1866, a young Muscovite named Alexei Ivanovitch arrives in Baden Baden, then the gambling capital of Austria, and is soon engaged by General Zagorianski to look after his children. Alexei discovers that his employer is a compulsive gambler who has been almost ruined by his addiction. The only money the General has is provided by the Marquis de Grieux, an adventurer who intends to marry Zagorianski’s sister, Pauline. In doing so, de Grieux hopes to profit from the vast inheritance that will come the General’s way from his Aunt Antonina, who is presently very ill. Alexei is appalled by this society which lives only for money. He loves Pauline and wants to take her to a healthier place, but when she refuses to marry him, he begins to gamble at the casino…

Dominique is a pretty, vivacious girl. When she witnesses a car theft, she throws herself and her bicycle under the vehicle. Jacques Mareuil, whom she then blackmails, pays her a sum to cover her debts. In reality, Mareuil, a policeman, is keeping an eye on Atcheminov, the owner of the car, but, wanting to prove that he is an unscrupulous trafficker, he comes up against Dominique's impetuosity time and again. It all ends up like in a good comedy.

Paul has to leave his country home to collect his father's inheritance of a department store. A natural-born son, Paul's stepmother gives him a cold reception, and he's appalled by the behavior of his half-sister Dominique, an existentialist of the highest order. Paul's gumption restores the Galeries Parisiennes to its former glory, and he gives a farewell present to a more subdued Dominique. He returns to his village, arm in arm with the wise Marie-Louise, ex-saleswoman at the Grand Magasin.

In a girls boarding-school run by Madame Piégeois, young Gisèle meets, at night, the count of Champrès' son.

Armand Varescot, a rich and tyrannical old man, is killed by his young and pretty secretary, Caroline, while he was trying to abuse her. To avoid scandal, his granddaughter Marie Varescot convinces Frank, his cousin, to take responsibility for this "accidental" death, he who is in love with Caroline. But Commissioner Legrand, who has designs on Marie, only agrees to close the affair if Marie marries her, and if Frank leaves with Caroline, abandoning his share of the inheritance. The arrangement is accepted and life goes on.

Mony, fiancée of Jacques, adopts the child he had with Gisèle. When she wants to take it back, she gives it back to him and pushes Jacques to marry her.

Thérèse, a young flower girl, tries hard to remain virtuous but the whole world seems to conspire against her, whether her petty Paris family, or her relatives in the province bristling with false respectability, or her lustful employer, or the boy she loves who seduces her and abandons her. But at the end of the day there is Yvon, her childhood friend. Will he be the one that will love her truly?

In the train that takes her back home, Catheine Beryl meets concert pianist André Fuger, a childhood friend of her husband's. The musician is both good-looking and seductive and Catherine soon falls for his charms. The two young people spend the evening and the following night together. The next day, a lost powder compact gives the affair away. At a loss, Catherine runs away from her husband but she has an accident. When she regains consciousness in her hospital bed, Catherine finds Georges, her husband, by her side, pretending nothing has happened.