萨宾娜（奥黛丽·赫本 Audrey Hepburn 饰）出生在富有的拉若比庄园，但她并非千金贵族，而是该庄园一介小小司机的女儿。可悲的是，萨宾娜看上了庄园里风流成性的公子哥戴维（威廉·霍尔登 William Holden 饰），而后者从来没有将她放在眼里。萨宾娜遵循父亲的旨意前往巴黎学习厨艺，在此期间，逐渐成熟起来的萨宾娜散发出了惊人的魅力。与此同时，为了促进家族企业的发展，戴维与伊丽莎白（玛莎·海尔 Martha Hyer 饰）的婚事正在如火如荼的进行中。就在这个节骨眼上，学有所成的萨宾娜回到了庄园，她的归来立刻吸引了戴维的眼球，两人不顾长辈的反对感情迅速升温。
为了维护弟弟的婚事，哥哥莱纳斯（亨弗莱·鲍嘉 Humphrey Bogart 饰）决定主动接近萨宾娜，以此来削弱她对戴维的依恋。在相处中，莱纳斯和萨宾娜之间产生了异样的感情，戴维得知此事同莱纳斯大打出手，而萨宾娜也误以为莱纳斯的感情只是一个阴谋。伤心的她逃亡巴黎，不久之后，莱纳斯也踏上了追随她的路途。

弗吉尔（伍迪·艾伦 Woody Allen 饰）是一个智商不太够用的笨小孩，可是，来自于贫民窟的出生让他的血液中流淌着犯罪的基因。仿佛生来就是为了犯罪，弗吉尔从来就没有考虑过别的出路。就这样，在一次失败的运钞车抢劫之后，弗吉尔锒铛入狱。利用一次成为药物实验对象的机会，弗吉尔获得了假释，可出狱后的弗吉尔死性不改，依旧过着充满了罪恶的生活。一次蹩脚的抢劫让弗吉尔结识了洗衣女工露易丝（珍妮特·玛戈林 Janet Margolin 饰），两人一见钟情。为了成为可以被依靠的男人，弗吉尔下定决心，要在抢银行这份十分有前途的工作上再接再厉。在着那让人着急的智商的帮助下，弗吉尔再度入狱……
本片为伍迪·艾伦真正意义上的处女作，用伪纪录片的方式讲述了一个令人啼笑皆非的荒诞故事，也为之后的《西力传》奠定了风格。

In Argentina, the family man Julio Madariaga is the patriarch of his family and considers his farm the paradise on Earth. One of his daughters, Luisa Desnoyers, has married the Frenchman immigrant Marcelo Desnoyers and they have one son, the playboy Julio, and one daughter, the gorgeous student of Sorbonne Chi Chi. His other daughter, Elena von Hartrott, has married the German Karl von Hartrott, and they have three sons: Heinrich, Gustav and Franz. In 1938, Heinrich returns from Germany for a family reunion and when he tells that he has joined the SS, the displeased Julio Madariaga has a heart attack and dies. When France is occupied by the Germans, the family reunites in Paris and Franz is the Nazi administrator in France. The alienated Julio has a studio where he paints, and has a love affair with Marguerite Laurier, the wife of the owner of a newspaper Etienne Laurier that is fighting in Belgium...