A film director has problems coping with his wife and marriage. The daughter is their only connecting link. He is looking for love and sex elsewhere. A married woman becomes his new partner for a while.

A salesman and his son sexually abuse the generations of women of a poor family as payment for debt. Janni must see his mother, sister, niece and wife all being exploited, and the family grow bigger with the abuser’s kids.

Bound by their all-consuming desire, a young circus tightrope walker and a lieutenant forsake everything to be together and escape to the countryside—only to see their lovers’ idyll gradually give way to poverty and desperation.

Stig is a 15-year-old pupil of 37-year-old teacher Viola. He is attracted by her beauty and maturity while she is drawn to him by his youth and innocence, a godsent relief from her drunk and miserable husband.