A small village rejoices at the arrival of a new baker. But when his young wife runs off with another man, he is unable to keep baking and the village is thrown into disarray.

A rural maiden's two suitors go off to war, leaving her pregnant.

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Albert Topaze, sincere schoolteacher addicted to rote morality, works at a private school run by supremely money-grubbing M. Muche, whose daughter, also a teacher, makes cynical use of the knowledge that Topaze loves her. Alas, Topaze's naive honesty brings him unjust dismissal...and makes him fair game for the aunt of his private pupil, really the mistress of crooked politician Regis, who needs an honest-seeming front man. Can artful Suzy Courtois keep Topaze on the string? With steadily escalating disillusion comes moral crisis...

Angèle, the daughter of Clarius, a farmer in the mountain of Provence, lives with her parents and their valet Saturnin. One day, near the farm, she meets Louis, a good-looking young man from Marseilles who is taking a holiday there. Unaware that he is nothing but a gigolo she is seduced by Louis and follows him to the city. But Louis, who has made her pregnant, forces her to be a whore before rejecting her. A year later, Saturnin comes to Marseilles in search of Angèle and finds her in a sorry state. He persuades her to return to the farm.... Written by Guy Bellinger

Honoré Panisse is dying, cheerfully, with friends, wife, and son at his side. He confesses to the priest in front of his friends; he insists that the doctor be truthful. But, he cannot bring himself to tell his son Cesariot that his real father is Marius, the absent son of César, Cesariots godfather. Panisse leaves that to Fanny, the lads mother. Dissembling that hes off to see a friend, Cesariot then seeks Marius, now a mechanic in Toulon. Posing as a journalist, Cesariot spends time with Marius and leaves believing tales he is a petty thief. Only after the truth comes out can Marius, Fanny, César, and Cesariot step beyond the falsehoods, benign though they may be. Written by

More than anything in the world, Manon, a proud, solitary shepherdess of verdant Provence, wants to avenge her fathers untimely and unjust death. With this in mind, Manon, bent on taking her revenge on the ruthless, calculative landowner, Papet, and his love-smitten but equally guilty nephew, Ugolin, concocts an audacious plan to deprive the unsuspecting inhabitants of the nearby village of fresh, drinking water. However, now that Manon has secretly diverted the life-giving source which supplies water to the communal fountain, before long, this grave situation loosens the tongues of those who have chosen to remain silent all these years. Are they prepared for the shocking truth? Written by Nick Riganas

A determined priest and a Communist mayor develop a grudging friendship in spite of their official rivalry.

César runs a bar along Marseilles' port, assisted by his 23-year-old son, Marius. Colorful characters abound: M. Panisse, an aging widower and prosperous sail maker; Honorine, a fishmonger with a sidewalk stall near the bar; her daughter, Fanny, who helps her sell cockles; and various old salts. Friends since childhood, Fanny and Marius love each other, but Marius has a secret wanderlust--every ship's whistle stirs a longing for foreign lands. When M. Panisse seeks Fanny's hand in marriage and when a departing clipper needs a deckhand, Marius and Fanny must decide whom and what they love most. César, with his generous, comic spirit, tries to guide his son. Written by

Marius has left, signed up for a five year hitch on a ship bound for the Indian Ocean. In his few letters to his father César, he hardly mentions Fanny. When she finds she is pregnant, she considers her options: suicide, to raise the child on her own, to wait for Marius, or to marry Honoré Panisse, the older merchant who seeks her hand. These choices are emotional: to raise a bastard, to trust in Marius eventual return, to believe hell want to marry her, to save her mother from shame, to fool Panisse, to give her child a name. In scenes dramatizing Fannys honesty, she talks to her mother, then Panisse, César, and later Marius, and she makes her choices. Written by