故事发生在60年代的一个巴黎小镇上。男主角（奥玛 沙里夫 饰）是个阿拉伯人，年迈的他开了间卖杂货的小店维持生活。头发花白的他非常孤独，却是个善良的老人，直到有一天一个犹太小男孩莫莫（皮埃尔·布朗格 饰）的出现，才打破了他寂寞的生活，一老一少，两个不同种族的人走到一起，在他们之间产生了忘年的友谊，也从对方身上找到了生活的乐趣。
一个希腊小镇上，有一群小孩生活在热情与梦想之中，而1969年的夏天对他们来说也将注定成为不寻常的日子。乌兰加是小镇上一个漂亮的女子，却以出卖自己为生，住在小镇的郊区。这群年轻的小孩都梦想着有朝一日能一亲芳泽，他们为此定下誓言共同筹集一笔钱以完成心愿。而其中一个叫阿希莱斯的男孩却与别人有着不同的想法。他想要成为一名宇航员，并希望有一个电视机能让他一睹人类登上月球的画面。因而他和其他的孩子产生了分歧。但最终，孩子们都为这一人类历史性的时刻而付出了共同努力，阿希莱斯也一偿心愿，体验到了犹如飞上月球的感觉。
马塞尔（安德烈·维尔姆斯 André Wilms 饰）曾经是一个小有名气的作家，可是，热爱自由的他厌倦了作家高高在上的枯燥生活，于是来到了勒阿弗尔，摇身一变成为了一个快乐的擦鞋匠。勒阿弗尔可爱而又热情的居民让马塞尔找到了心灵的归宿，在这里，马塞尔过上了梦寐以求的平静而又安定的生活。一个非洲男孩的出现打破了马塞尔规律的生活，出于同情和本能，马塞尔收留了这个被警察追得到处跑的可怜男孩。屋漏偏逢连夜雨，在此节骨眼上，马塞尔的妻子阿勒提（卡蒂·奥廷宁 Kati Outinen 饰）患上了恶疾需卧床休养，一边是凶神恶煞的警察，一边是病危的妻子，马塞尔一下子被推到了命运的十字路口。
该片细腻且深刻地描写出各类神秘的双面间谍的故事，书中复杂的斗智活动、两难的道德处境、暧昧的善恶定义、纠结的人际关系，情节引人入胜，内容富含人生哲理。
An American boy turns out to be the heir of a wealthy British earl. He is sent to live with the irritable and unsentimental aristocrat, his grandfather.
Halil goes to a bar with his friends and meets Sabiha, a prostitute, and they fall in love. Two lovers want to escape their past and live together. However, Sabiha knows little about Halil's life, and she has to face some facts.
After he inherits some money, Harold Bissonette ("pronounced bis-on-ay") decides to give up the grocery business, move to California and run an orange grove. Despite his family's objections and the news that the land he bought is worthless, Bissonette packs up and drives out to California with his nagging wife Amelia and children.
The Tasia chasing the impostor Lepoura Vangelis arrives with hitchhiking in Athens. Gaining confidence wholesaler Kyriacou Bolore and taken to his house as a maid. The daughter of Kiriakos, Lia, presents the writer Phaedon Tramountana and asks him to finance the scenario. His son Lakis, wants to succeed in the profession of wholesaler and prefers to deal with the rock band. His sister Ismene has in mind only the deck.
Antoine Sforza, a thirty-year-old young man, left his village ten years before in order to start a new life in the big city, but now that his father, a traveling grocer, is in hospital after a stroke, he more or less reluctantly accepts to come back to replace him in his daily rounds.
A super market owner opposes the affair of his daughter with a new employee at his business.
A young girl begins to wonder if she really fits into the upper-class sorority she's trying to join.
A corrupt grocer in a traditional Cairene neighborhood enters into an alliance with comprador merchants. Their goal is to hoard scarce commodities during the World WAR II, and then to sell them at vastly inflated prices. Eventually the grocer's neighbors rebel at his tactics. They call in the national athorities and the black marketeers are brought to justice.
The daughter of a miser grocer react to their father's effort to marry with the man he approves. When her uncle from America and her older sister arrive, the situation radically changes, because the new arrivals happen to be open-minded and view things in a different light.
This entry in MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series deals with racketeers shaking down small grocers and horning in on the relief tickets, forcing prices up with the consumers paying the freight.