At a dusty crossroads in the Soviet Union villagers surrender their possessions - a horse, a samovar, a goat - to the state. The train which takes them away brings to the village a physically and mentally handicapped woman, barely able to speak. She makes herself bracelets of burrs and studies herself in a cracked and cloudy mirror. Befriended by very few, teased and tormented by many she seeks protection at a huge portrait of Stalin.

The tumultuous history of Hungary through the twentieth century is viewed through the saga of the Hungarian-Jewish, furniture-manufacturing family, the Vendels. After taking over the once successful, but now failing, family business in the 1930s, the family patriarch's dashing elder son decides that the family needs an infusion of new blood. A matchmaker presents him with a photo of a pretty German nursery school teacher. When the two meet, they instantly fall in love, but because Hungary has an alliance with Germany, and the Third Reich prohibits marriage between Gentiles and Jews, the couple must hide their union. Their marriage ultimately stands as a dark foreshadowing of rougher times to come as troubles ensue with the advent of World War II, when the family, its employees and servants must retreat to the basement, where the shop emerges increasingly as a refuge in a world growing more violent and less tolerant.

An orphaned Kurdish child (Hêjar) and a Turkish pensioner (Rıfat) are thrown together by circumstance. Rıfat, a widowed retired judge, refuses to get involved in politics. He is forced out of his solitude, when Hêjar the only survivor of a police raid on his Kurdish neighbors, takes refuge at his home. Gradually, he warms up to the kid and decides to reunite her with her family.

A comic study of 20th century history, reconstructing the life of one Tulse Luper, a writer, project-maker and professional prisoner. He was born in 1911 in Newport, Wales and last heard of in 1989. The story of his life is here pieced together from the evidence found in 92 suitcases scattered around the world. In the third of three parts, we follow Tulse Luper as he continues his adventures as a professional prisoner during the later years of the Second World War and the Cold War.

Events come through medieval haze in a fantozmagorik city. Under the rocky roofs and the murky wall a frightening mixture of wildlife with fragile hatreds with renewed love of death. Metaphors have to say that power abuse has the same essence but different performances.

Endre Julián, the young toy maker, lives a life of leisure. A man with a devious nature, he has his eye on the beautiful daughter Vera, the police inspector János Kántor. He takes her to his weekend home, but she realises that he is looking for an easy fling with her. An unfortunate accident causes Vera to disappear in deep water, and Endre notifies the police, telling Inspector Kántor the bad news. Eventually she is lucky enough to be found, but she doesn't want to hear anything about the toy maker. Endre's fatherly friend, Uncle Reményi, is very taken with the serious girl and decides to bring the young people together.

The final years of Sándor Márai's voluntary exile in San Diego, which led to his suicide in 1989. Based on his own diary.