The north of Sweden in 1902. A team of railroad men are building a rail road from Luleå at the Bay of Bothnia to Narvik at the Norwegian Sea. One of the newest workers, Valfrid from the south of Sweden, is not accepted by neither Stora Ballong, the informal leader of the workers, nor the others. They refuse to talk to him but instead Valfrid gets help from the sworn enemy of the railroad workers: the greedy drugstore owner Blom.
The poor farmer Jan is getting very old when he becomes father to the girl, Klara Gulla. First, he sees the child as a burden, but when he receives the newborn child in his arms he is overjoyed. He does everything in his power for her during her. But when she as an adult leaves home, Jan can not come over the loss of her.
Swedish film of the Kaj Munk play that was made into a far more famous film by Carl Dreyer in Denmark twelve years later.
Håkan Dahlin has just been discharged from a clinic where he has been treated for his alcoholism. When he immediately goes out with his friend to get drunk and then goes home and abuses his wife he gets forcibly interned again.
Magnusson, verkstadsägare
During the spring of 1940 two young men gets drafted and deployed close to the Norwegian border, where they fall in love with the same woman.
Knutte
Ulla and Gunnar meet and fall in love in Stockholm in the late 1930s. Early in their relationship Ulla discovers that she is pregnant but she decides to get an abortion because she doesn't want to pressure Gunnar into marrying her. The outbreak of the war puts a strain on their relationship when Gunnar gets called up for military service.
Pråmen
Inga and her father, the violin maker Lars, are big music enthusiasts. One day they meet the violinist Jan-Erik.
