Jim Olsson, eight years old, lives in a small, boring town. His father has passed away recently, but comes back in Jim's fantasies to tell stories. In his daydreams, Jim has all kinds of adventures.

A newcomer comes to live in the village, it is soon found out that he has a special gift. He can find oil with his hands. But who is he and what does he want from the villagers?

Late 19th century. In the little village of Bessinge near Hörby, Skåne, have the farmer and churchwarden Ola Månsson been murdered. Three people stand trial, two men and one woman. The woman is his wife.

In Los Angeles, photographer Peter Mitchell learns that he has inherited a palatial estate in Sweden from his unknown relative, Annie Holst. He, his girlfriend Sarah, and her deaf son Dennis, head overseas to decide whether to live in the property or to sell it. But when they arrive, they find the locals offer a chilly reception whenever Annie's name is mentioned. It turns out that Annie had lost her son some 50 years ago in a tragedy at the nearby orphanage where she had placed him temporarily, due to circumstances beyond her control. But she had continued to see her son even after his death. Now, young Dennis is drawn to the derelict orphanage, and to a new friend who only he can see. And Peter must solve a decades-old mystery of how the orphans died before his family faces a similar fate.

A suicidal factory girl, just out of reformatory school and anxious to escape her overbearing mother, falls in love with a sailor who can't forgive her past.

Esarparen is a man who a long time wished death of his wife and suddenly is accused of murdering her. He protests his innocence. Does he speak the true or is he the man who could kill his own wife? Either that or is it a third possibility that bypassed both the court and the press?