1812年，拿破仑的军队控制大部分的欧洲国家。在为数不多未被征服的国家中，俄国打算联合奥地利一起进行殊死抵抗。贵族安德烈公爵（梅尔·弗尔 Mel Ferrer 饰）就是这样怀揣一腔抱负的俄国军官。然而安德烈的挚友皮埃尔公爵（亨利·方达 Henry Fonda 饰）却毫不关心战事。他在父亲临终前成为遗产继承人，与贵族之女海伦（安妮塔·艾克伯格 Anita Ekberg 饰）结婚，却在婚后不久发现性格不合而分居。安德烈战役失败被释放归家看望难产而死的妻子。几个月后，彼埃尔与罗斯托夫伯爵一家在去打猎，叫上了安德烈。安德烈对伯爵的女儿娜塔莎（奥黛丽·赫本 Audrey Hepburn 饰）一见钟情。不久，娜塔莎接受了安德烈的求婚，然而安德烈很快重返军队。海伦的弟弟阿纳托里趁虚而入，骗得娜塔莎的爱，唆使娜塔莎与他私奔。俄法战争开始，娜塔莎遇到了深受重伤的安德烈，安德烈在临死前原谅了娜塔莎的背叛。战争结束后，皮埃尔回到了莫斯科，与娜塔莎结合在了一起。

故事发生在二十世纪初的一个炎热的夏天，某日，一个哇哇啼哭的婴儿呱呱坠地，父母给他取名为约翰（詹姆斯·穆雷 James Murray 饰），随着时间的推移，约翰渐渐长大，怀揣着对未来的理想和期望，约翰透过时光看到了无比广阔的空间。然而，父亲的死扼杀了约翰的一切希望，约翰的双眼渐渐失去了神采。
约翰来到繁华的大都市纽约，在这里寻找新的生活，他成为了一名普通的工人，和成千上万同他境遇相同的人过着日复一日枯燥的生活。某日，一位名叫玛丽（埃莉诺·博德曼 Eleanor Boardman 饰）的美丽姑娘出现在了约翰的身边，他们坠入情网，结婚生子。一晃眼五年过去，约翰已经有了两个孩子，殊不知，悲剧正在前方等待着他。

John and Mary sims are city-dwellers hit hard by the financial fist of The Depression. Driven by bravery (and sheer desperation) they flee to the country and, with the help of other workers, set up a farming community - a socialist mini-society based upon the teachings of Edward Gallafent. The newborn community suffers many hardships - drought, vicious raccoons and the long arm of the law - but ultimately pull together to reach a bread-based Utopia.

第一次世界大战的末期，美国派兵赴欧洲参战，富家子弟吉姆(约翰·吉尔伯特 饰)也加入了军队，在部队中跟建筑工人出身的斯利姆和酒保布尔很快成为了好友。部队在法国登陆，驻扎在一个小村庄里。在那里，吉姆认识了法国村姑梅丽桑德(蕾妮·阿多莉 饰)，两人很快燃起了爱火。不久，部队奉命开赴前线，吉姆被迫离去。梅丽桑德在军用卡车后紧追不舍，吉姆脱下军靴抛给她，表达自己对她的爱意。
在前线，炮火密集，吉姆、斯利姆和布尔躲在炮弹坑中十分着急。经过抽签，由斯利姆冲出坑外对付敌人的大炮。炮声停止了，但斯利姆一直没有回来。吉姆十分担心，往敌阵中寻找，果然发现了斯利姆的尸体。
美军进行大规模反攻，吉姆奋勇作战，结果因腿部中弹而住进野战医院。在那里，他听说梅丽桑德所在的村庄处境十分危险，于是偷偷溜出医院赶到村庄，却发现该地已成一片废墟……

In a juke joint, sharecropper Zeke falls for a beautiful dancer, Chick, but she's only setting him up for a rigged craps game. He loses $100, the money he got for the sale of his family's entire cotton crop. His brother Spunk is mortally wounded in the shoot-out which follows. Zeke goes away but returns as Brother Zekiel the preacher. His forceful preaching draws the faithful in large numbers. Even Chick wants to be saved. Zekiel has asked the pretty Missy Rose to marry him, but Chick can still cast a spell over the preacher...
- Written by David Steele

One morning, Harry Moulton Pulham, Jr. a Back Bay Bostonian who leads an orderly life, receives a call from former Harvard classmate Rodney "Bo Jo" Brown, who is organzing their twenty-fifth year college reunion. The overbearing Bo Jo gives Harry the assignment of compiling the class biographies, and as Harry begins, he thinks of his own proper Bostonian upbringing. The next day, Harry gets an unexpected call from Marvin Myles, now Mrs. John Ransome, a woman whom he had loved more than twenty years ago. She asks to meet him for a drink that afternoon, but when he sees how beautiful she still is, he cannot approach her. Reasoning that he is as happy as any average man could hope to be, Harry then orders roses for Marvin, and takes a gardenia home to his wife, Kay Motford Pulham, whom he met in dancing school. He then takes the dog for a walk and wonders if he ever really was happy: At Harvard, Harry is friendly with worldly Bill King. After graduation, Harry goes into the army during World War I, is decorated for bravery and impresses his men for not "wearing lace drawers." After the war, he meets Bill in New York, because he doesn't feel like going home, and Bill gets him a job at the advertising company at which he works. There Harry meets Marvin, who is a copy writer. Harry is puzzled by the independent and ambitious Marvin, who is different from the women in Boston. When Harry goes home one weekend, he and Marvin realize that they are in love with each other. Harry then determines to marry her, even though his mother, Mary, is in ill health and his father, Harry, Sr., does not understand his son's new life in New York. Marvin does not want to marry right away and is concerned over the differences in their backgrounds. When Harry gets word that his father is dying, he rushes home and is begged by Harry, Sr. to stay in Boston with the family. While business affairs force him to stay on in Boston after his father's death, Harry yearns for Marvin, and when Mary suggests that he invite Bill up for a few days, Harry invites Marvin as well. Marvin feels out of place in Boston, especially as Harry has not told his mother of their relationship. Meanwhile, Bill flirts with Kay, to whom he has always been attracted, but who is now engaged to fellow Harvard man Joe Bingham. After Kay suddenly breaks her engagement, Harry advises Joe to have a showdown with her and decides that he must do the same with Marvin, who has returned to New York. He goes to her and says that they will marry the next day and live in Boston "for a little while," but she refuses because she hates Boston's stifling atmosphere and fears that she would be destroyed by a lack of independence. Realizing that he belongs at home, Harry leaves Marvin, who promises always to wait for him if he wants to come back. Some time later, Kay, whose relationship with Bill never developed, calls Harry. Finding that they are very much alike, they soon fall in love and marry. The day after Harry's reminiscences, his life seems to be in a state of disorder and he implores Kay to go away with him right away. She dismisses his talk of love and happiness and sends him off to the office, to which he is late for the first time in his life. Marvin then calls and he asks to come to her hotel. There they kiss, have champagne and dance, then realize that everything is the same between them, even their differences. After leaving Marvin, Harry returns to the office and finds Kay waiting outside. Although Kay is hurt that Harry has seen Marvin, she wants to go away with him and says that they have always loved each other, since their first day in dancing school. Knowing that Kay is right, he happily drives away with her.