When high-school literature teacher Ana Bauch innocently recommends a film to her students, a parent's complaint spirals her life into chaos.

Abel, 12, has to face the fact that his parents are living in two completely different galaxies of the universe. Now he has to decide which one he belongs to.

The '60s, Romania. Serafim, a young doctor, is sent to the Hospital in Palilula, a small town lost somewhere on the country map, after the death of the previous pediatrician, Mr. Pantelică.

A Hungarian youth comes of age at Buchenwald during World War II. György Köves is 14, the son of a merchant who's sent to a forced labor camp. After his father's departure, György gets a job at a brickyard; his bus is stopped and its Jewish occupants sent to camps. There, György find camaraderie, suffering, cruelty, illness, and death. He hears advice on preserving one's dignity and self-esteem. He discovers hatred. If he does survive and returns to Budapest, what will he find? What is natural; what is it to be a Jew? Sepia, black and white, and color alternate to shade the mood.

Sibiu, December 1989. In the chaos and panic generated by the protests of the crowd against the authorities, a unit of the militia becomes the target of a violent assault that escalates into a bloody confrontation between soldiers, militiamen, security agents, and civilians. Trying to escape the siege, Captain Viorel of the militia is captured and accused of being a terrorist.

By a strange coincidence, an amateur ornithologist comes face to face with a pastry chef. A tale of infidelity, blackmail and violence in a small country cake shop.

At 15 he and his family became victims of state terror. At 16 he became a freedom fighter to participate in the 1956 Revolution against Soviet oppression. At 17 he is betrayed and arrested by the dreaded Secret Police (AVH). Now he has to spend the remainder of his life in a political prison, called Hell's Hallway, to reach the legal age of 18 before his death penalty can be carried out. Peter Mansfeld was 18 when he was unjustly executed by the totalitarian regime of Hungary. Today he is remembered as one of the national heroes of Hungary.

1990, Romania. Three children reenact Ceausescu's execution. Who will be the victim?

Trumpet player Géza Elekes does not play very well in his private life, and his fourth marriage has failed. One day he gets a call from his father, whom he hasn't spoken to in decades. This prompts her and her son, András, who is in the thick of things, to visit her parents, who live across the border. When he arrives in Transylvania, his father says he is fed up with her jealousy and moves in with him. Géza reluctantly accepts the idea, but eventually the three men set off for Budapest. Along the way, they face many trials and tribulations: hit-and-runs, chases, women, corpses and the green border.

A post mortem photographer and a little girl confront ghosts in a haunted village after the First World War.