After Sumsemann the beetle loses one of his arms to a troll, he invites brother and sister Peterchen and Annaliese to join him on a journey to the moon in a quest to retrieve his lost arm.

While on a longer business trip, a wannabe poet urges his beautiful but more simple wife to answer his overly swollen love letters. With no idea how to respond she forwards the letters to a new young school teacher to use his answers instead...

The Torbergs' life follows an orderly course, defined by bourgeois convention. Per-Olof, the son, opposes his father's authoritarianism, and their daughter Monika, the sculptor, has moved out of the family home. However, this has not prompted Mr. Torberg to question the familiar order. One day, Billy, a young outsider, visits the couple. He doesn't say much. His presence alone causes the Torbergs to suddenly talk to each other honestly.