Five unemployed workers win 100,000 Francs in the national lottery. Instead of sharing the money, they buy a ruin and build an open-air cafe. But difficulties come to split their friendly group apart.
Jules Vachon, a pharmacist, has two sons, Gabriel, a steady-minded young man dedicated to his job in the pharmacy, and Gaston, a good for nothing whose only talent is to seduce rich women and take money from their pockets. But it is Gaston who is hailed as a great man when he returns to his native village thanks to his deep pockets.
About the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the beginning of the First World War. Focuses on the relationship between a Serbian officer and his Austrian-born wife and their involvement in espionage between the countries.
