霍尔格（格斯塔·埃克曼 Gösta Ekman 饰）是一位非常著名的小提琴手，正在进行为期两年的全球巡回演出。当他终于结束了这场漫长的演出回到家中时，却发现一切都改变了。因为长时间的分离，妻子玛格丽特（因加·蒂德布拉德 Inga Tidblad 饰）对于霍尔格的感情已经十分的淡漠，女儿和儿子亦对父亲非常的疏远，这让霍尔格感到十分的委屈。
一次偶然中，霍尔格结识了名为安妮塔（英格丽·褒曼 Ingrid Bergman 饰）的家庭教师，随着时间的推移，两颗孤独的心渐渐靠近。然而，这将注定是一场不会有任何结果的不伦之恋，为了逃避道德上的谴责，安妮塔选择了不告而别。

Kristin is the daughter of a prominent landowner in medieval Norway. She grows up in total harmony with the ideals of the time: strong family ties, social pride and devout Christianity. She accepts the fact that her father has arranged for her to marry the son of another landowner. Kristin's beauty and purity create violent emotions around her. There are envy and attempted rape, murder and revenge. She seeks refuge from the world in a convent, awaiting the time for her marriage. Here the passion of her life strikes, the knight Erlend Nikulaussonn. He, an accomplished seducer, also falls hopelessly in love. They have to cross not only convent walls to meet, but social boundaries as well. Their love cannot be kept secret, and suddenly the innocent Kristin is the centre of a scandal. Her fiance withdraws from their engagement, her father rages, and Erlend's former mistress tries to poison her. The affair grows into a political issue, and finally some of the country's most dignified leaders persuade Lavrans to give in. The lovers win each other, but it is in front of a charred altar in a burnt down church, and their happiness has a double edge. Written by The Norwegian Film Institute

A Swedish cargo ship is in the winter of 1938 at the dock in Gdynia in Poland, waiting to depart with coal to Sweden. In a tavern in the port a Polish dockworkers tries to tell something to the Swedish sailors, but is rudely turned away by the tavern owner. Later in the evening the port worker is found dead. That same evening one of the Swedish sailors, meets a Jewish woman who has fled Nazi Germany.

Thomas Hell is an officer in the Salvation Army. He has religious doubts and questions the meaning of his work. He meets Lili, an ex-prostitute struggling to start a new life and he falls in love with her. However, she has a pimp, the boxer Herman, who won't let her leave.