A young miller takes under her protection an orphan brought up by an old woman.
On the eve of revolution, French activist and author Marquis and his talking penis, Colin, await judgment in the Bastille for allegedly plotting against the state. While Marquis dedicates himself to his art and Colin longs for action, the provocative pair unwittingly rouse the interest of competing ideological factions.
Eustache, a young cloth merchant's clerk preparing to marry Javotte, his boss's daughter, has his fortune told by a strange magician: "You will die greater than you have lived!" he tells him. The prophecy seems wonderful. "But you will die hanged!" he continues. Frightened, Eustache is willing to do anything to escape his fate and agrees to pledge his right hand, renamed the "Hand of Glory," to the magician...
In Belle Époque Paris, a 19th-century Parisian aristocrat falls in love with a lower-class prostitute who seduces him but never loves him.
A French diplomat is surveilled by a secret service to find a weakness for political control, his private life becoming 'File No. 51'.