Philibert Bretonneau signs novels which are actually written by Moluchet, his secretary, secretly in love with Bretonneau's charming wife, Pauline... One day, Jim la houlette, the king of thieves, resurfaces in France. He steals jewels from Madame Clisson, the wife of a lawyer. Saint-Lévy, Bretonneau's publisher, has an idea : to simulate the theft of a manuscript by Jim la houlette, in fact by Moluchet posing as the criminal. But Moluchet, confronted by the real Jim, lets him run away and is arrested...

Father-and-son lion tamers, Rabbas and Léo share a mistress - Rosita, the " lovely bitch " of the film's title. She is as wild as their lionesses and, in a single night the father is injured and the son attempts suicide. Only when Rosita leaves the circus can things get back to normal.

Sisif, a railwayman, saves a young girl named Norma orphaned by a train crash and raises her as his own daughter alongside his son, Elie. As she becomes an adult, Sisif grapples with whether to tell Norma the truth about her parentage.

In a small fishermen's village love affairs are in turmoil, amidst political meetings and revolutionary activities. Nature adds drama to the human passions with its wind- and sea-storms.

From 6 P.M. to 8 P.M., in a documentary fashion, the film shows different character types sitting, meeting, and working at a cocktail's bar.

Rose is a young factory worker, seduced and abandoned by her lover. She feels compelled to abandon her baby, who will grow up in a rich family, with problems of its own. Rose lives through plenty of adventures, always repenting for leaving her child, until one day.

A French film star visits Coimbra and it's old university, and breaks a poor local girl's heart, as her fiancee turns his attentions to the foreign girl. In a play within the story, one is told the sad love story of Don Pedro, king of Portugal, and Inês de Castro.

After many difficulties, the seductive Italian dancer, Rosine Savelli, manages to clear herself of a plot hatched against Napoleon III...