사춘기에 접어든 12살의 잉마르(Ingemar: 앙톤 글랜젤리우스 분)는 장난기가 심하지만 사색하는 소년이다. 아버지는 지구 반대쪽으로 해외 근무를 나가셨고 형과 어머니(앙키 리덴 분) 이렇게 셋이 살고 있다. 그는 늘 밤하늘을 바라보며 소련 우주선에 태워 올려진 개 라이카와 신문에서 본 여러가지 이야기들을 떠올리며 삶을 살아가는 지혜를 스스로 생각해 본다. 그의 어머니는 중병을 앓고 있는데 잉그마가 말썽이 심해 병세가 악화되자 시골의 친척집으로 보내진다. 잉그마는 그 마을 사람들의 좋은 친구가 되고 그가 다시 집으로 돌아올 무렵 어머니는 돌아가시고 만다. 다시 아저씨 집으로 돌아온 잉그마는 환경에 적응하기 위해서 여러가지 어려움을 겪는데 남자 같은 여자 친구와의 일련의 위기를 맞게 되지만 잘 헤쳐나가며 새로운 환경에 뿌리를 내리는데 성공한다. 마침 그와 이름이 똑같은 잉그마르 요한슨이라는 권투 선수가 미국 헤비급 챔피언을 때려 눕혀 전국이 기뻐하는 시간과 때를 맞추어 여자 친구와의 사이도 깊어진다. 그리고 그 지방 제일이라는 지붕 수리공의 망치 소리가 마을 깊이 은은하게 들린다.
A Professor comes home carrying a paper bag with food. Among the goods in the bag is apricot jam. His wife reacts strongly, since they always have eaten orange marmalade. The Professor leaves his house and checks into a hotel.
Nine people - three couples, one unmarried mother and two children - try to change and improve their lives by forming big families. Eva feels oppressed by her conventional parents. Vera and Lasse live with their daughter in a depressing suburb environment. Lena lives alone with her three-year-old son Pelle. Sven and Bibi live together in a small one-room apartment where they constantly quarrel. Sven sees the big family most as an opportunity for sexual experiments. A young French medical student, Paul, meets Bibi through common acquaintances and moves into the collective. The reason is simply that he has been attracted to Bibi. Meanwhile, Sven is increasingly interested in Lena.
To increase sales of the magazine Veckohatten, the management decides to invest heavily in the beauty contest Miss Sweden. A communist cell is planning to sabotage the competition, because it is sexist.
People on a train get murdered. Who is the murderer? Everybody on the train is a suspect. One of them is the homosexual dope fiend played by Heinz Hopf. Things might get out of hand in this exciting thriller in true Hitchcockian style.
The plot revolves around a sadistic doctor, a macabre gravedigger, an innocent girl, sabotage, sex and violent death. The beautiful Vivi Sander is living a rough life and is deeply in debt. She tries to force her family to sell the house to make ends meet. Vivi's car crash after a sabotage. She is injured and brought to a medical center where she meets the perverted Dr. Wester.
Fashion-designer May Berg is driving alone one evening, when she almost run over a man lying in the street. She gets out of the car to see. Suddenly the man attacks her, trying to strangle her. The assassination attempt fails, but it is followed soon by new, mysterious attempts to kill her. She is driven more and more into a constant fear of her life. Her husband trivialize the whole thing and even the police is skeptical of her claims that she is stalked by someone trying to kill her.
