An inspector of the Antwerp criminal investigation unit faces problems not only in his professional life, but also at home. When he is partnered with a young, over-confident colleague, he loses control over the case in hand.

A curator in a museum meets a woman he knows from a centuries old painting.

The family patriarch Van Paemel is a farmer on baron de Wilde's estate. His mild-mannered son Désire is accidentally shot during a hunting party on the estate and remains an invalid. Eduard, the eldest son, is a member of the socialist workers' movement and involved in strike actions in the city. Against her father's wishes, his daughter Cordule starts an affair with the poacher Masco. His youngest daughter, Romanie, is forced to work as a domestic servant at the castle, where she is seduced by Maurice, the baron's son and heir, and becomes pregnant. When the youngest son Kamiel also has to leave the farm because he is drafted into the army, the lack of workers on Van Paemel's farm becomes critical. As a result, the family is evicted from their home because they cannot pay the rent. Three of the children emigrate to the USA, one becomes a nun and one dies, until only the farmer and his wife remain.

The film describes the first working day of a twelve-year-old girl, shortly after the turn of the century. After a miserable childhood in a proletarian family, where she was mother to five toddlers, the sensitive girl follows in the footsteps of her parents and seventeen-year-old sister and sets off for the brickworks. The girl bravely defends herself at work, enduring the boys' bullying without tears, but when the day comes to an end, the foreman tells her that she must go to Krevelt, the boss, to be registered.

1989. Hugo (Michael Pas) is in his first master's year economics. At the same time he is training for the 110 meter hurdles. And he has another sport: chasing girls. But when his latest catch (Antje De Boeck) suddenly disappears, he's obsessively starts looking for her. She seems to have ended up in an idyllic, utopian countryhouse.

A batch of bottles of gold liqueur (also known as Bruidstranen) containing the original drink mixed with clandestinely distilled, toxic methyl alcohol is put on the market. One bottle is purchased by a couple on their way to a wedding party. During the wedding, the television in the kitchen next to the reception hall is showing images of the port of Antwerp, where three sailors have died after drinking from a bottle of gold liqueur. The police launch a manhunt for the perpetrators and the remains of the batch.

Ludovic, a 12-year-old boy from a well-off home who is neglected by his parents, who are part of the art scene, falls head over heels in love with Sofie, the daughter of a piano teacher, when he has to pass a test of courage in the schoolyard during recess. The cheeky girl with the two pigtails likes the boy who is interested in her. They soon get closer and meet in secret places in the city. It is the first love for both of them. Shortly after Sofie's father catches the two lovers in bed together in Sofie's room, Ludovic is sent away from Brussels to spend time with his grandparents. But Sofie can't stand it without Ludovic and runs away from home to be with him. The lovers hide in abandoned buildings on the Belgian coast. While parents and police search for the couple, both youngsters find that it is pretty hard to be on their own, especially since an ominous photographer is lurking around the children.