The Way to Love

François, a cheerful Parisian bohemian, wants more than anything to be a tour guide in his beloved city. Presently, however, he is a walking advertisement for Professor Gaston Bibi, who is in the business of "l'amour." Bibi helps the adulterers of Paris deceive their spouses by making mock postcards of them in exotic places and administering suntans to those who are supposed to have been at the sea. While working the streets for Bibi, François meets Madeleine, who is the target for circus knife-thrower Pedro, her guardian. Pedro is brutally jealous of Madeleine's associations with other men, and when he sees her with François, he beats her. Later, François rescues a dog who is believed rabid and, while chasing it, finds Madeleine running away from Pedro for the ninth time and takes her home to his rooftop apartment, which he shares with American composer Joe and performer Suzanne. Madeleine's dream is to open her own puppet show at the circus, and she eagerly makes a puppet of François as a tour guide. He, however, does not behave romantically toward her, so Joe proposes, but she refuses. Although he denies his love, François skips a date with another woman to come home to Madeleine. Pedro then arrives with a policeman, and Madeleine is forced to return to him unless she marries. Although Joe offers, François gallantly insists he be her husband, but does not swear his love. François is finally hired as a guide and tells Bibi of his impending marriage. Bibi's wife Rosalie, however, wants François to marry her homely niece Annette and convinces Madeleine that if she loves François, she will let him marry a decent woman with a dowry. When François arrives home that night, he swears his love to Madeleine, but she tells him there is another man and leaves him to return to Pedro. Bibi, meanwhile, discovers Rosalie's scheme and quarrels with her. After Bibi is kicked out of the house, he hires François as his guide and they get drunk together and go about Paris clipping men's ties. When François finds a fight promoter at the circus with Madeleine's tour guide puppet, he is tricked into fighting a professional and wins, then finds Madeleine back at her old job. François fights Pedro and wins, then rides the carousel with Madeleine.