Old man John Tarwater and young lawyer Elam Harnish, gripped by the "gold fever" leave for Alaska, embarking on the adventure of a new hard and torturous life, which, due to famine, John Tarwater falls victim to.

An engine driver is taken prisoner in 1944 and ends up in a camp behind enemy lines. He escapes together with a soviet prisoner and a professor and make their way back to Romania.

The eruption of an oil well is much needed for the survival of the workers and their families living nearby.

The autopsy of a deceased girl finds that the victim had died long before the accident. Taking over the case, "Grandpa" and his assistant, Panaitescu, discover that the perpetrator of the false accident is being blackmailed.

Sent on assignment to write a report on a scientist from an industrial complex, Caius, an established author, bumps into former schoolmate Cosma. Together they attend the press junket, discovering the subject of Caius’ assignment to be none other than their former university crush, Irina. The joyful reunion takes them to their old haunts, but once Cosma leaves, the remaining couple head down memory lane, spending the evening confronting each other with their conflicted shared history of love and abandonment. Between Caius’ enduring charm and Irina’s guarded independence, their romantic two-step will finally bring them requited closure.

An ex-convict struggles to survive by brute force alone in a turn-of-the-century slum in Bucharest. Codine is the thug who served 10 years for murdering a friend. He returns home to his miserly mother, whose penny-pinching ways infuriate her son. A young boy looks up to Codine, and through the man's eyes he sees the economic and social injustices from an adult perspective. When Codine kills another man who violated his trust, his mother becomes more unhinged and paranoid. Thinking her son will steal her hoarded money, she plots to kill her only son. The impressionable child watches in horror and amazement at the cruel machinations of the adult work that surrounds him.