A science-fiction film centered around planet Earth receiving a coded message from outer space and the subsequent disappearance of 12,000 inhabitants of Sepuvedra, a free-trade port. The government and the army are convinced that they have been kidnapped by aliens and Professor Larsen, an eminent astrophysicist and UFO expert, is assigned to lead an urgent investigative mission into the deserted town.

France, 1911. Louise Perreau, struggling financially to raise her son Gaston, gets a new job in Paris that brings her hope for a better life.

Set in the French countryside in the 1600s, a lone rider deposits a newborn baby boy on the steps of a monastery, having bitten his nose off. The child is bought up by an ex-pirate and his wife and is taught to read, write, count, joust and fence, and is also given a wooden nose. However, he is ordered by a local baron to attend a tough seminary, but he soon rebels and makes an action-packed escape...

Stephen, an international trader, tracks down his ex-wife Patricia in some Amazonian backwater. He needs her consent to a divorce so that he can marry Charlotte. Unfortunately, he discovers a son he didn’t know he had – Mimi-Siku. The young jungle boy yearns to see Paris so Stephen reluctantly agrees to take him back home with him for a few days. How will Mimi-Siku react to life in the great metropolis?

Dominique Pinon talks to the camera describing his likes and dislikes, ranging from the simple such as "I hate men with a beard but no moustache" to the more touching, "I like to think that after death can't be worse than before birth." Each of his examples is accompanied by a visual demonstration.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet reused this technique in his 2001 flim Amélie when introducing the characters.