Teacher Rundqvist who works in a school in a small town in Scania is old fashioned but loved by his pupils. When a younger teacher with new ideas of teaching starts at the school Rundqvist's methods are questioned.

A traveling magician and his troupe arrive in a Swedish town in the 1840s, where their act is scrutinized by local authorities and a skeptical medical official. Their stay leads to a series of confrontations that test the boundaries between performance, belief, and deception.