Toastmaster
O rei Henrique II (Patrick Stewart) mantém a esposa, a rainha Eleanor (Glenn Close), trancada em seus aposentos do castelo por causa das frequentes tentativas de tirá-lo do trono. Mantendo a mulher fora do caminho, o rei também aproveita para galantear jovens senhoritas do reino. O que ele não sabe é que a esposa, mesmo na clausura, tenta armar um plano para que o filho Richard (Andrew Howard), o segundo da linhagem, assuma o trono.
1958. In the cell of the condemned, seven men await the signs of an approaching execution. All of them recall their pasts and envision their wish-dreams.
Un soldat allemand
Polish Martin Gray recalls the Holocaust, New York prosperity, and losing his wife and family.
Antal Konrád
When a young boy comes in to see a doctor abourt a red mark on his face, the doctor's wife welcomes him into the consulting room instead. As they talk, she offers him something to eat and then notes that his manner of eating is just like that of her previous husband, who died in prison many years earlier. It turns out that the young man had been his cell mate for a year, and he tells her the story of how her husband died. She then remembers (in flashbacks) how she had helped her first husband rid himself of his sexual repression, and how she had promised him she would marry her current husband if she were widowed. It seems her doctor-husband was a man who could remain untouched through any political climate, and was much admired by her first husband. Now that her memories have been awakened by the young man's account, she ignores the repeated phone calls of her current husband and decides to rid this young man of his own sexual repressions.
Federal deputy
Angi Vera, as a promising young woman, gets invited to a Communist training center to undergo the next level of indoctrination into Party life. She begins to realize how people get ahead in the Party: by saying things they don't mean but think are politically correct; by becoming friends with Party dignitaries, even if you don't like them; by being seen as a dedicated worker (as opposed to actually being a dedicated worker).
