It's Christmas. The owner of an old mansion decides to tell his family he's going to sell it. The following morning he's found murdered.

Ebon Lundin is the anonymous but odd living man, who becomes a Christ-like, misunderstood figure who suffer much scorn and derision of the cruel reality.

Lena, aged twenty, wants to know all she can about life and reality. She collects information on everyone and everything, storing her findings in an enormous archive. She experiments with relationships, political activism, and meditation. Meanwhile, the actors, director and crew are shown in a humorous parallel plot about the making of the film and their reactions to the story and each other. Nudity, explicit sex, and controversial politics kept this film from being shown in the US while its seizure by Customs was appealed.

Portrait of the Swedish poet Dan Andersson (1888-1920). Brought up during poor conditions he finds work as a temperance preacher and educator. Bored by this he travels to Stockholm to try to get his poems published. On the train he meets a rich, sophisticated art patron who encourages him and grinds his literary and philosophical formation.

There is a new English teacher in school, Miss Lind. She moves in with the Nilssons, whose son Sigge prefers playing with his trumpet than to study German. Miss Lind convinces him how important his studies are. But Sanna, a girl in Sigge's class becomes jealous and angry when Sigge prefers his homework instead of her. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.

Gustav Vasa struggles to keep power while dealing with the Dacke War in his own country and his foreign debts.

Jan Froman is a young man with great plans for the future. He gets a job as an assistant janitor at a bank, but with inherited money he starts to buy and sell real estate which eventually increases in value. He falls in love with Margareta, whose father is a naval officer. Margareta is slighted by her fiance and follows Froman on a sailing trip in the archipelago. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.

Britt Malm gets hit by a car on a Stockholm street and is taken to hospital. She is badly injured and must undergo surgery. While the anesthetic takes effect she sees hallucinatory images. This turns into a flashback of what happened Britt before the accident.

An escaped convict assumes the identity of a professor in order to reveal a criminal syndicate who smuggle diamonds together with Parisian haute couture.

In an occupied country, the people rise to throw off the occupants. This includes Jens the farmer and his three sons who successfully perform sneak attacks on the invading army.