The relationship between a father and daughter is complicated by the arrival of a handsome young man.

At an elite private Border School four students form a clique to sneak out of school after hours to meet, drink and play. By trying to escape the golden cage which their wealthy parents have stuck them in, they search for the Extreme. In the course of time their excessive games grow more and more violent and soon they turn against the weakest of the group: Leibnitz. Dyrbusch (Leader of the pack) and Bogatsch (the executive power) continue to torture him, he voluntarily puts up with it because he can't manage to dispose of his tormentors, on one hand being afraid to loose their "Friendship" and on the other hand due to the consequences that might arise with his parents. Konstantin, the opportunist is the only one who sees through the moral magnitude of their games, but he hesitates too long not wanting to endanger the alleged common destiny that these boys in this school appear to have: their clique...

In the 1840s, Lübeck is a dominating commercial town on the Baltic coast, and the Buddenbrooks are among the town's first families. Consul Jean Buddenbrook has two sons, Thomas and Christian, and one daughter, Antonia, called Tony. Even though he dearly loves them, he expects his children to sacrifice personal happiness for the sake of the company if necessary. The first to learn this is Tony, who is married off to Hamburgian businessman Bendix Grünlich. Her brothers have meanwhile learned the trade in Amsterdam and London respectively. Crushed by Tony's marriage disaster and several unlucky transactions, Jean Buddenbrook makes over the business to his eldest, Thomas. Thomas marries the dutch heiress Gerda, who is a passionate violin player. But Thomas never forgets his first love, a flower girl. After having spent time in Valparaiso, Christian returns to Lübeck...

Sweden, early 1900s - an era of social change and unrest, war and poverty. A young working class woman, Maria, wins a camera in a lottery. The camera grants her the eyes to view the world, and empowers her over several decades to raise and nurture her family of six children and an alcoholic, womanizing and sometimes violent, although ultimately loving, husband.

A man tours clubs around the globe with his manager and girlfriend. On the eve of their largest album release he is admitted to a psychiatric clinic after overdosing at a gig.

In the midst of the Korean wilderness, a Buddhist master patiently raises a young boy to grow up in wisdom and compassion, through experience and endless exercises. Once the pupil discovers his sexual lust, he seems lost to contemplative life and follows his first love, but soon fails to adapt to the modern world, gets in jail for a crime of passion and returns to the master in search of spiritual redemption and reconciliation with karma, at a high price of physical catharsis...

A man is charged with murder. He is Pigoil, the aging stage manager at Chansonia, a music hall in a Paris faubourg. His confession is a long flashback to New Year's Eve, 1935, when he discovers his wife is unfaithful and Galapiat, the local mobster, closes the music hall. Over the next few months, Pigoil loses custody of his beloved son, Jo-Jo, and must find work. Pigoil and his pals take over the Chansonia as a co-op; Galapiat is momentarily benign. Their star is the young Douce, a girl from near Lille for whom Galapiat lusts. She in turn falls in love with Milou, a local Red. There are ups and downs, but mostly ups - but what about Jo-Jo and what about the murder?

Medical student Paula Henning wins a place at an exclusive Heidelberg medical school. When the body of a young man she met on the train turns up on her dissection table, she begins to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, and uncovers a gruesome conspiracy perpetrated by an Antihippocratic secret society operating within the school.