Bedelia Carrington is living happily, it appears, in Monte Carlo with her husband Charlie Carrington. But a cultivated young artist, Ben Chaney, begins probing into her past with curious concern. Chaney, who is really a detective, learns that Bedelia's obsession for money has led her, in the past, to husband-poisoning for the insurance money.

In Camelot, kingdom of Arthur and Merlin, Lancelot is well known for his courage and honor. But one day he must quit Camelot and the Queen Guinevere's love, leaving the Round Table without protection.

When Celia Crowson is called up for war service, she hopes for a glamorous job in one of the services, but as a single girl, she is directed into a factory making aircraft parts. Here she meets other girls from all different walks of life and begins a relationship with a young airman.

After the war is over, two army pals take opposite paths in civvy street. One becomes a petty criminal, the other becomes a policeman.

In Ballyconnen, Emmy Baudine is a beautiful but disturbed young woman who works for the local priest. When the carnival comes to town, she encounters a handsome young boxer called Dan and lays his face open with her fingernails when he expects sexual favors from her. Hurriedly packed off by Father Corcoran to Yorkshire, Emmy is taken in by a farming family and manages to suppress the strange feelings of fascination and repulsion that she experiences in the presence of the opposite sex. Until, that is, the carnival comes to town and brings with it the vengeful Dan...

Sister Mary presides over a convent where a convicted murderess, who is being escorted to Death Row, is stranded by bad weather. She is slowly becoming convinced that Valerie is innocent so Sister Mary sets about to clear the girl and bring the real killer to justice.

Flirtatious mermaid Miranda swaps places with a schoolteacher who has gone on holiday. All is well until she falls in love with a human.

A crime reporter begins to investigate the disappearance of his bosses wife who had witnessed a murder.

A pseudo-documentary focusing on the daily work and routine of women police officers built around three different storylines.

W. Somerset Maugham introduces three more of his stories about human foibles.