The old Victor Branzell has a grandson, Alf, who is in love with a clerk in a glove shop, Lilian Lind. But Lilian with her simple background doesn't get accepted in the circles where Alf belongs, and they have now reached the conclusion that they can't have a future together. Marriage is impossible. Victor summons Lilian and Alf and starts telling them his life story.

Early in the 20th century, middle-aged lawyer Fredrik Egerman and his young wife, Anne, have still not consummated their marriage, while Fredrik's son finds himself increasingly attracted to his new stepmother. To make matters worse, Fredrik's old flame Desiree makes a public bet that she can seduce him at a romantic weekend retreat where four couples convene, swapping partners and pairing off in unexpected ways.

Atka Natas is a secret agent from the oppressive regime of Liquidatzia. He visits his estranged wife Vera, a chemist who is involved with a group of exiles trying to smuggle their compatriots out of Liquidatzia. Almkvist, a local policeman and former lover of Vera's, contacts her while investigating the death of one of the refugees. Natas has a list of agents operating in the host country and wants to sell them to the Americans. However before he can do so, Vera tries to kill him, after an argument about getting her parents out of Liquidatzia.

A suicidal factory girl out of reformatory school, anxious to escape her overbearing mother, falls in love with a sailor who can't forgive her past.

Harry, returning home after six years in an asylum, has vivid recollections of a party many years ago with six of his friends. The party ended with one of them, Raoul, disappearing. A gardener is digging in Harry's garden when a skeleton and a watch with the name "Raoul" is found. Harry invites his friends to a dinner to solve the mystery of Raoul's disappearance.

Sam Persson is released from a mental hospital. He goes to Stockholm to meet a man he hates, theater manager Stig Brender. In Brender's office they get into a fight...

In an occupied country, the people rise to throw off the occupants. This includes Jens the farmer and his three sons who successfully perform sneak attacks on the invading army.

Hasse has received a scholarship from the insurance company where he works together with his friend Lennart. They both travel to Vienna so that Hasse can take a few days off, while Lennart attends lectures about insurance. While away, Lennart has rented his room to a girl, Alva. When he returns home earlier than expected, they have to share the apartment a few days...

A devoted but controversial priest comes to a Swedish village. He encounters conflicts with the locals. The priest has some problems within his family as well. One is related to an orphan girl.

Herr Sleeman kommer is a 1917 one-act play by the Swedish author Hjalmar Bergman. The main character is an orphaned young woman who is about to be married off to an unappealing but rich old man, Mr. Sleeman, at the instigation of her aunts who have taken charge of her. Bergman infuses the situation with overtones of rueful pessimism concerning life in general.

Loffe Fridh is out wandering the roads and takes life one day at the time.

Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.

Four Swedish volunteer soldiers are trapped in Russia. In front of them lies the front with enemy outposts and patrols, behind them the enemy minefields. Hope to return to their own lines decreases each day. Corpses of fallen, "dead of cold and hard as iron", forms the macabre landmarks in the winter landscape. Nearby is a burnt Russian village.

A mythic depiction of a pagan sacrifice in prehistoric Sweden.

Torsten and Sven are in love with Inger, who prefers Sven. Due to jealousy, Torsten destroys the radio system aboard the fishing boat as Sven will release the following morning. During the fishing season it blows up, but as the radio is not working, the crew does not know anything about the danger.