Hungary, 1950s. József Pelikán, who works as a dam keeper on the Danube, meets by chance Zoltán Dániel, an old friend whom he saved from death years before and who is now a powerful politician.

The Hungarian Oh, Bloody Life reflects on the heavy emotional toll taken by the repressive Stalin regime. Dorotya Udvaros plays a young actress from a high-born family. The government bias against persons of wealth threatens to destroy her career before it begins. As a final blow, she is threatened with deportation. The exasperation inherent in the film's title is only the tip of the iceberg.

In 1944 Budapest, one of a group of four friends poses a hypothetical moral question to the others, an act that will unexpectedly alter their lives forever.

Terpinkó, the bragging man of muscle likes womanising linked with betting: conquering is a great fun for him. He bet one to a hundred on his new boss, Éva. But the wife of the engineer handles all his tricks with annoying benevolence. Terpinkó falls in love with her and therefore he cannot stand her not returning his feelings.

This mocking criticism of public life and the media focuses on a TV series. The protagonist of the film, depicting the battles fought for Hungarian castles during the Ottoman occupation, is chosen to be the amateur Prohászka Feri, a worker in the beer-factory.

On the eve of World War II, Major Benedek Zoltán is an embodiment of the service regulations in the army. He only discloses his feelings towards Anna, his brother's widow. An investigation is conducted in the regiment to identify Communists.

In modern Hungary, con artist Bender Oszkár and his motley crew - Barangó and a band of small-time schemers - embark on a series of outrageous scams to track down an “illegal” millionaire and seize ten million for themselves. As they exploit every trick in the book - fake charities, crooked roulette tables, forged documents - their madcap pursuit of easy riches exposes the absurdities and corruptions of contemporary life, with Bender’s fate hanging on whether his “great maneuver” will pay off or blow up in his face.

The film is a true account of the drama of "non-action" on 14th and 15th of October, 1944. The Nazis, having a straightforward program, occupy Hungary with little or no difficulty, as the Hungarian political leadership had no unambiguous program for responding to possible steps of the Nazis. In spite of the secretly signed cease-fire agreement and proclamation, Horty gives up all plans of resistance at the news of the kidnapping of his son. The Nazis take over power and roll up the so-called conspiracy aimed at Hungary's breaking away from the German alliance.

In 1947 Hungary, Dorottya is expelled from school for possessing Communist literature and joins a party cell to remain near her lover, only to fall for and marry the group’s leader. After the Communist takeover, her husband vanishes in a political purge, leaving her to suspect her former lover played a role in his disappearance. Now a disillusioned factory cleaner, she is forced to confront her past and face a bleak future alone under the rising Stalinist regime.