Four Swedish volunteer soldiers are trapped in Russia. In front of them lies the front with enemy outposts and patrols, behind them the enemy minefields. Hope to return to their own lines decreases each day. Corpses of fallen, "dead of cold and hard as iron", forms the macabre landmarks in the winter landscape. Nearby is a burnt Russian village.

Conventions of civility among family members are severely strained by the very real breakup of the bonds between them. During a few days at a vacation home, Katha, a woman in late middle age, tries to cope with an influx of discontented, disconnected relatives. Her divorced daughter brings all sorts of people to the house, including a woman-friend accompanied by her psychotic son; the grandfather of the house is convinced he is dying and is satisfied by nothing; and some friends drop off their angry teenage son to stay with her, while they go on a long trip abroad. Her friend Emma doesn't help much with keeping a lid on things, as she is a social worker who is fascinated by the awfulness of these situations.

A relay race of "scenes from human life". Depicts the human characters inferior traits are spreading like a disease: the person who gets rejected / humiliated / oppressed takes it out on someone else.

A small-town piano teacher is shocked by the arrival of her foster daughter's biological mother, whose young lover soon follows and causes further disruption.