The Swedish officer Mikael Bourg has served with the French army in Africa. When he returns to Sweden after many years abroad to recover from malaria, he meets his son, a student who prefers partying with his frat friends instead of his bank job; a disappointment in his father's eyes. He also meets a young librarian, Ebba Garland, which makes him feel young again and distracts him from the sickness.

Latin teacher Birger Sjögren at Ringsala boarding school threatens his possesive and chronically ill mother that he will get married. She gets a stroke and dies. Sjögren is affected by feelings of guilt, envy and hatred towards the surroundings. A series of mysterious fires have taken place around the school the last few months. One of the students has seen Sjögren setting fire to a barn. But can he convince the trusted biology teacher Nordmark, expert of the criminal mind?

Charlie Gedelius has spent the last years abroad as a golf trainer. In Copenhagen, Denmark, he meets young Lena, who happens to be his brother-in-law's mistress. He goes back to Sweden to meet his sister Astrid. Her son Staffan has borrowed money from a money-lender to pay for an abortion for a girl he has met.

The ups and downs of three generations in an acting family.

The film follows a number of people in an apartment building during a night full of dramatic events and entanglements.