Amélie, a young waitress in a bar in Montmartre, spends her time observing people and letting her imagination wander. She has set a goal: to do good for those around her. She then invents stratagems to intervene incognito in their existence. Amélie's path is punctuated by encounters: Georgette, the hypochondriac tobacconist; Lucien, the grocery clerk; Madeleine Wallace, the concierge fond of port wine and stuffed dogs; Raymond Dufayel aka "the glass man", his neighbor who only lives through a reproduction of a painting by Renoir. This quest for happiness leads Amélie to meet Nino Quincampoix, a strange "prince charming". He divides his time between a ghost train and a sex shop, and seeks to identify a stranger whose photo constantly reappears in several photo booths.