A gambling countess comes by a secret three card combination that wins her a fortune, but she is allowed to use it only once and not gamble again. She passes on the info twice, and the recipients both die violently. She is warned that if she passes it on again, she too will die. Many years later, a young soldier discovers that the countess has the secret, and he resolves to get it out of her.

Cardinal Mazarin dies, leaving a power vacuum in which the young Louis asserts his intention to govern as well as rule. Mazarin's fiscal advisor, Colbert, warns against Fouquet, the Superintendant who has been systematically looting the treasury and wants to be prime minister. Fouquet believes Louis will soon tire of exercizing power and overplays his hand by offering a bribe to Louis' mistress to be his ally. She reports this to the king who arrests Fouquet. Louis and Colbert design a brilliant strategy to keep merchants making money, nobles in debt, the urban poor working and fed, and peasants untaxed.

A couple of comedians attempt (they never agree) to tell the story of how they met and their picturesque careers in the arts. Guy recounts with dark humor the circumstances of his first, unhappy marriage, his family dramas, his early days as an extra... Sophie describes her professional and sentimental adventures with a friend, Manon, in a no less hard-hitting style. Following a trip to Italy, the two young women end up in a center for "single mothers", whose atmosphere is more reminiscent of a barracks. A few years later, Sophie's son Balthazar attends his mother's wedding to Guy and takes part in the couple's whimsical life.