It's the early twentieth century Sweden. Adolescent siblings Alexander and Fanny Ekdahl lead a relatively joyous and exuberant life with their well-off extended paternal family, led by the family matriarch, their grandmother, Helena Ekdahl. The openness of the family culture is exemplified by Helena's now deceased husband ending up becoming best friends with one of her lovers, a Jewish puppet maker named Isak Jacobi, and their Uncle Gustav Adolf's open liaison with one of the family maids, Maj, who everyone in the family adores, even Gustav Adolf's wife, Alma. Between the siblings, Alexander in particular has inherited the family's love of storytelling, his parents and his grandmother who are actors and who manage their own theater. Things change for Alexander and Fanny when their father, Oscar, dies shortly after Christmas 1907. Although she truly does believe she loves him, the children's mother, Emilie, decides to marry Bishop Edvard Vergérus, who she first met as the officiate at ...

The world has become a vast conglomerate of islands of varying size and shape. This babbling universe is mainly populated with ruthless rogues, surly peasants and illiterate, petty lords. Their main concerns revolve around two fundamental rules: Eat and don't get eaten. For this new world has become infested with a terrible plague: omnipresent, monstrously famished, mutant creatures, are wreaking havoc - They are known as the Dragons. Gwizdo and Lian-Chu are two dragon hunters, but are a long way from being among the best. Their only real talents: the size of the hulking brute with the heart of gold, Lian-Chu, and Gwizdo's talent for scams of all and any shape or form. Their sole ambition: to buy a little farm where they can relax and raise mussels, a creature that is a lot less unpleasant and difficult to hunt down than dragons. A few islands away rises the fortress of Lord Arnold...

Teacher François Marin and his colleagues are preparing for another school year teaching at a racially mixed inner city high school in Paris. The teachers talk to each other about their prospective students, both the good and the bad. The teachers collectively want to inspire their students, but each teacher is an individual who will do things in his or her own way to achieve the results they desire. They also have differing viewpoints on the students themselves, and how best to praise and discipline them. The administration of the school tries to be as fair as possible, which includes having student representatives sit on the student evaluation committee. Marin's class this year of fourteen and fifteen year olds is no different than previous years, although the names and faces have changed. Marin tries to get through to his students, sometimes with success and sometimes resulting in utter failure...