An epic tale of four families from the medieval period to the 1960s: from the lies that spawn the noble line of de Cygne who claim descent from the hero of the celebrated poem The Song of Roland; the revolutionary Le Sourds who seek their destruction; from the Blanchards whose bourgeois respectability is threatened when one son joins the underworld near the Moulin Rouge, creating a scandal; and the hard-working Gascons who lose everything during the reign of Louis XV yet rise again in the age of Napoleon to become part of the art and culture of Paris. Real events and people make their appearance on this stage: Napoleon, Louis XVI, Monsieur Eiffel...the occupation of France in World War II, the Paris Commune, the World Exhibition...all these and more make up the epic tale that is Paris.