The film tells the story of a love affair between a poor poet and an equally poor seamstress in 19th century Paris.

The marriage of the famous writer Alan and his young wife Lola is in a crisis. On a vacation in Haiti Lola wants to decide if their relationship still has a future...

A French man spies on a lovely younger woman across the way. When he's spotted by the woman shortly after being questioned by the police about a local murder, the man's simple life becomes more complicated.

Composed entirely of literary quotations from many different sources and from several historical periods, the loose narrative concerns a drifter found by a rich woman who soon falls in love with him. A drowning accident takes place and the drifter dies, but some time later he reappears in the woman’s life looking for a job. Or could it be the man’s twin brother?

Agatha is a beautiful young woman from Romania who had a brief but passionate love affair with a French surgeon when he visited her country as part of a charitable medical team. Agatha has decided to come to France to rekindle their romance, but when she arrives in the city of Roubaix, she discovers he didn't take their relationship nearly as seriously as she did. With nowhere to go, Agatha is befriended by Mehdi, a cab driver who helps her find a place to stay. Mehdi is attracted to Agatha, and she returns his interest, but as it turns out Mehdi is already seeing someone -- Cecile, who is having an affair with Mehdi while involved with his close friend Marc. Hoping to move away from Roubaix with Agatha and start a new life, Mehdi gets a job as a bill collector, while Marc impulsively walks off his job and an angry Cecile gives him his walking papers.

Hippolyte, the titular oddball, is a far from typical country lawyer. He has been happily married to the woman of his dreams for 15 years, but has an incurable penchant for practical (or rather impractical) jokes.

A veteran of the Indochina war, a doctor emigrated to Kabylia. He is torn between his love for the sister of a rebel group and his duty as a patriot.

Charlie (Guy Marchand) returns home after being declared legally dead to reclaim his wife Georgia (Caroline Cellier) and cash in on a lucrative life insurance policy in this shadowy drama. He finds Georgia is married to the crooked cop William (Niels Arestrup), who has his eye on the insurance money. Antihero Charlie and the villainous police inspector head towards an inevitable confrontation, while Georgia is caught in the middle.