When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

Called to court on obscenity charges, a theatre troupe are forced to expose their neuroses and inner psychological torments.

A number of complicated relationships develop between a circus ringmaster, his estranged wife and his lover.

A young woman dies by suicide and leaves all her belongings to her next-door neighbour, who becomes determined to investigate her reasons for taking her life.

The soul of an evil witch about to be burned is transferred to the child of a pregnant woman in the audience. 19 years later a timid girl arrives at a farm looking for work. The farmer employs her despite his wife's protests. Soon it stands clear that the girl is in fact the evil witch, returned to wreak havoc on the farmer and his family. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.

Depicts a woman who commits suicide after being betrayed by a man who, by playing on her low self-esteem, has made herself her superior - and thus deprived her of all right to exist.

About a girl growing up in a big city in the seventies. She cultivates her artistic ambitions. After a series of relationships, she gets a small part in a play and becomes pregnant.

A female reporter invents a story about a man who threatens to take his life to protest the injustices of society. But the scam is about to be revealed. She is forced to persuade a tramp to play the fictional man.

Bolle gets tired of working at the cigar factory and because of his desire for freedom he takes to the road. He and the other hobos have only one problem and that is the mounted policemen chasing vagrants.

Karsten falls in love with Sonja, she rejects him, but not because of lack of interest. She travels to France and he goes after her. They get to know each other and become close.