Ballets sans musique, sans personne, sans rien

La Naissance d'une fée. Évelyne loves a Poet, but the jealous witch Karalik casts a spell that disrupts their relationship. The Poet abandons Évelyne after becoming infatuated with a dancer. Évelyne encounters an embodiment of the spirit of dance and receives a golden reed that gives her extraordinary dancing powers. Karalik responds by arranging her murder. Forest spirits revive Évelyne with drops of moonlight. She has now completed her transformation into a fairy and ultimately confronts the forces that destroyed her old life.

Voyou Paul. Brave Virginie. Céline rewrites Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Paul et Virginie. Paul and Virginie survive their supposed shipwreck with help from a witch's potion. Paul drinks too much of it and changes from an innocent lover into a reckless "voyou." When they return to Le Havre, Paul becomes involved with Mirella. Virginie uses the potion herself to win him back, provoking Mirella's jealousy.

Van Bagaden. On the docks of Antwerp around 1830, wealthy shipowner Van Bagaden tries to maintain control over his workers and valuable cargo. His clerk Peter is literally confined to his work station while dockworkers labour under supervision. A band passes outside, music erupts, and the workers abandon discipline for dance.

Foudres et flèches. Classical mythology is turned into domestic and military comedy. Jupiter and Juno quarrel while Achilles, Ulysses and Ajax remain preoccupied with conflict. The generals want Jupiter's thunderbolts — weapons of overwhelming power — but Cupid intervenes with a very different weapon: his arrows. Love begins defeating military ambition.

Scandale aux abysses. Neptune rules an underwater kingdom increasingly unable to defend itself from modern humanity. Industrial ships kill marine animals, including seals, and Neptune's traditional powers are becoming ineffective. He falls in love with the siren Pryntyl. Venus becomes jealous and engineers Pryntyl's exile to the human world. Pryntyl arrives in Le Havre, where she is absorbed into the nightlife and criminal economy of the port. Neptune eventually follows her, producing a collision between mythological gods and modern industrial life.

La Naissance d'une fée. Évelyne and the Poet begin as lovers in an idealised eighteenth-century world. Karalik intervenes to break them apart. The Poet becomes fascinated with one of the ballerinas and abandons Évelyne. Heartbroken, Évelyne enters the forest and meets a hunter who has killed a doe. A spirit of dance gives her a golden reed, and with it she acquires marvellous powers of dance. Her transformation provokes another woman's jealousy; a gypsy, acting under Karalik's influence, stabs her. Évelyne dies, but forest spirits revive her with drops of moonlight.

Voyou Paul. Brave Virginie. Paul and Virginie survive the famous shipwreck of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's original novel because a witch saves them with a magical drink. Paul consumes too much and becomes impulsive, sensual and unruly. Three years later, fashionable society gathers at Tante Odile's home in Le Havre, where Mirella and Oscar are preparing to marry. News arrives that Paul and Virginie have survived. Paul adapts quickly to the pleasure-seeking world around him and becomes Mirella's lover. Virginie drinks the witch's potion herself to recover him. Mirella responds by shooting her.

Van Bagaden. Van Bagaden supervises valuable merchandise in a dockside warehouse at Antwerp. His workers are exhausted and restless. Peter, his clerk, is bound to his stool by a metal restraint — an exaggerated physical image of labour discipline. A captain announces an incoming cargo of pearls and jewels. Peter is sent to deal with the shipment. Then music intrudes. A passing band starts playing, and the dockworkers begin dancing rather than working. Van Bagaden orders Peter to restore discipline, but Peter cannot stop them.

Foudres et flèches. On Olympus, Jupiter and Juno are fighting over Jupiter's infidelities. Meanwhile Achilles, Ulysses and Ajax remain committed to warfare. Women urge the generals to stop fighting. The generals instead seek access to Jupiter's thunderbolts. Cupid provides a competing arsenal: arrows of love. The conflict shifts from military conquest to erotic attraction, and Éryx wins Achilles back.

Scandale aux abysses. Neptune receives complaints from the ocean's inhabitants: modern industrial fishing and sealing vessels are slaughtering marine animals faster than his storms can stop them. His marriage to Venus is troubled. Neptune becomes fascinated by Pryntyl, a young siren. Venus discovers the attraction and engineers her exile to the human world. Pryntyl arrives in Le Havre, where a criminal named Victor takes advantage of her. Her beauty and supernatural voice make her a sensation, but she gradually becomes absorbed into drinking, nightlife and prostitution. Neptune eventually travels to Le Havre disguised as a human. He drinks, is robbed and loses his crown and trident. Pryntyl feels the pull of the sea again and boards a sealing vessel commanded by Captain Krog.