Married to Karl Ammer, the station master of Thaya, a Hungarian quiet village, Anita is a pretty young peasant who feels deeply bored. She dreams of another life while watching the daily express trains to Budapest. An incident will force her to leave her province: she has to go to Budapest to attend the funeral of an aunt and receive a share of the inheritance. After completing the formalities, Anita misses the train to go back home and then she finds herself alone in the capital.

After discovering a fragment of a Phoenician amphora while in Corsica, 25-year-old scuba diver Gerard goes hunting for a treasure Troilus is alleged to have lost in the sea following the Peloponnesian War. His meeting with the lightkeeper's beautiful daughter Manina jeopardises his goals.

The young and patriotic student Demachy joins the French army in 1914 to defend his country. But he and his comrades soon experience the terrifying, endless trench war in Champagne, where more and more wooden crosses have to be erected for this cannon fodder.

A daydreaming French composer sees himself as a fine figure dashing through history.

Five unemployed workers win 100,000 Francs in the national lottery. Instead of sharing the money, they buy a ruin and build an open-air cafe. But difficulties come to split their friendly group apart.