Solidarity with the border people. Equal rights for the sexual deviants. Kristoffer Lohman is a young solicitor who collects stories and knowledge of different perversions. This has affected and changed his own sexual life. Sara, a young well-behaved and adorned woman, becomes interested in Kristoffer's activity.
An American gangster of Swedish origins returns to his homeland to set up shop as a morality crusader, much in the manner of the later phenomenon of televangelists. While indulging in behind-the-scene shenanigans including rape and murder, the gangster (played by American Clu Gulagher) preaches to large audiences, using mass hypnotism and show-biz razzmatazz to get his message across. The film also features a brief performance by Per Oscarsson, following his highly publicized "retirement" from screen acting.
Devout Christians Töre and Märeta send their only daughter, the virginal Karin, and their foster daughter, the unrepentant Ingeri, to deliver candles to a distant church. On their way through the woods, the girls encounter a group of savage goat herders who brutally rape and murder Karin as Ingeri remains hidden. When the killers unwittingly seek refuge in the farmhouse of Töre and Märeta, Töre plots a fitting revenge.
When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.
The 1880s. Abandoned by his middle class parents in Stockholm, Johannes grows up in the countryside with a cobbler who regularly beats him up. Also at school he has to face regular beatings because of his Stockholm background, the only one who cares for him is a girl, Lotta, who promises to marry him one day. When he's 20 he moves to Stockholm and joins the Royal guards at the Royal palace. Quite by accident he meets Lotta again and start an affair with her. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.
An agrarian community sometime in the 1700s. The farmer Påvel is married with his young wife Märit and very proud to have married such a young and sweet girl. Märit however, is disappointed about her marriage. Their neighbor Håkan lives alone on his farm and he falls in love with Märit. He tells her of his feelings and Märit is torn between the security of her marriage and the feelings she has for Håkan.
At a meeting at the Salvation Army a female soldier tells the story of her life.