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.

On a tourist trip abroad the passengers on the coach witness an assassination attempt on the President Hurkas. One of the tourists has evidence against the perpetrators, and is killed when the coach reaches Sweden. Another passenger observes how one of the perpetrators is picked up by a yellow car. She is kidnapped and locked up in a mental hospital.

An allegory of Germany's WWII occupation of Norway. Members of a theater ensemble join the resistance.

Staffan Stolle becomes the sole heir to a rich and noble family when he is just a little boy. Early on he is engaged to be married to a girl he finds he does not love. Instead he flees the country only to return under a false name, looking for true love.

Harriet and Frank Allard have been married for many years. Almost twenty years ago, Harriet had a love affair with a colleague of Frank's, Claes von Klitzow, who made her pregnant. She had a son, Christer, whom Frank thinks that he is the father of. One day, Christer reveals that he is going to marry von Klitzow's daughter Louise. Harriet becomes upset but what will she do? Try to stop the marriage by telling the truth - which would endanger her marriage with Frank - or keep silent, which would mean that two half-siblings married?

In a movie studio, a fight scene is underway. The hero, played by Allan Bergner, will make an impression on the heroine, played by Ylva Vendel. But Allan is not prepared to give more than one pale hint of fight; he wants to be presentable in later scenes as well. The director wears his hair.

"Seventh Heaven" - Famous radio personality Willy Lorens has a big success with the radio series "Seventh Heaven." The amount of fan mail and attention eventually becomes too much for Willy, who suffers a minor collapse. Taken to a hospital where he meets Dr. Lovisa Sundelius, virtually the only woman in Sweden who do not admire the radio idol.

A boy lies and dreams in his bed in the kitchen, wakes up and takes a kitchen knife with him to bed and falls asleep. He dreams that he kills everyone at a game table, except for his father, whom he takes out on a tram ride. The boy wakes up again and waits for the father to come home and when he does, the mother and the father quarrel about something. The morning comes and the boy goes out, finally ends up at the beer café where the father and his beer friends are sitting.

Just before the young Anna is getting married to the lighthouse keeper Holmstrand, she meets the Norwegian sailor John. He falls in love with her, but leaves her when he is told she is engaged.

Pawnshop assistant Patrick and maid Viveka meet by chance and become fond of each other, but none of them want to reveal his real profession for the other.