When Hans wakes up one morning, he realizes that he is longer than his bed, his feet sticking out over the edge of the bed. The young man remembers his happy childhood. Hans knows it's time to leave home.
Pollution, disaffection, moral decay and social unrest surround a church and its pastor's family heading toward a celebration over the return of its bells.
Wassa Schelesnowa, a manipulative matriarch who will stop at nothing to keep her business afloat and her family together. Infanticide, forgery, murder, blackmail, adultery, exile, and plain old-fashioned greed are the order of the day as Wassa's colorful clan tries to scheme its way out of the house and into financial independence.
Strange things happen in the overnight express: according to a cryptic, obviously military announcement, the train's telephone link with the outside world has been cut off, access to the rear part of the train has been barred, the windows cannot be opened and the train does not stop at any station. While the train's secretary decides to get to the bottom of these ominous events, the other passengers react quietly and are annoyed by the young woman's anxiety. A young priest prevents her from pulling the emergency brake.
Eva Bernhardt leaves her home in Germany after an unhappy love affair and looks up a friend in Copenhagen. She has left Germany without papers and is in Denmark illegally. Actually, the store where her friend works is a cover for a vicious call-girl racket and Eva is forced into that life by threats of exposure to the Danish authorities.
The young farmer Andrä has fallen madly in love with the maid Maria. But she marries the son of the mayor. When Andrä meets the newlywed in the mountains and the latter falls into the depths after an argument, a murder charge is brought - but no one but Andrä knows the truth
Told in flashback, the film recounts the events leading up to the killing of good-for-nothing Curt Jurgens. Warned by her friends and relatives that Jurgens is a bad job, impulsive Ina Kahr marries him anyway. His ceaseless philandering and abuse wears away at Ina to the point that she contemplates poisoning her husband...
