A man is too shy to ask a girl out and decides to kill himself. While lying in the road he is rescued by a Doctor who tries to cure him by implanting the heart of a rooster into him, something which suddenly makes him irresistible to women.

Thérèse kills her lover during the very night of her wedding to the count of Vétheul. To gain a night with her, a modest local worker agrees to bury the body.

1920, in a small village in Provence. Monsieur Pascal, a young schoolteacher, is faced with a lack of interest from his pupils. He decides to radically change the methods employed by his predecessor. He listens to the children, draws inspiration from their discoveries and takes them out into nature. The pupils will rediscover the pleasure of learning, and he will rediscover the pleasure of teaching. But some parents and notables don't take kindly to this little revolution.