[2] Uninterested in the pottery business, Jean Barnery is ordained as a pastor and marries Nathalie, a woman quite unsuited to the role.

When people start commenting that it is worse for a pastor to have a separated wife open to any mischief, he brings her back to the marital home.

Come the 1914 War, Jean takes no advantage of exemption for health, though weakened by tuberculosis, and serves throughout at the front, while Pauline nurses wounded soldiers.

Come the peace, he tries to improve quality and efficiency at the factory and to expand sales in the USA, but profits remain elusive and labour relations tense.

While young Max seems on the way to playing a role in the business, his daughter Aline goes off the rails with smoking, drinking, dancing, and staying out all night.