Den midaldrende manufakturhandler Jens Steen er på vej til sit sommerhus ved Vestkysten for at slappe af. Helt alene. Imens er 20-årige Else Petersen på spanden - og hun vejrer en ferie med alt betalt. Med klassisk kvindelist fedter hun sig ind hos Jens Steen, der bliver besat af hendes skønhed og ungdom. Men da den lokale, jyske cykelmekaniker skruer op for charmen, kommer der kurrer på tråden. Og inden længe har Jens Steen en skandale på hånden, som han kun kan gøre ét for at afvige Selveste Bodil Ipsen instruerede i 1944 et af den danske filmhistories få film-noir dramaer. Besættelse er en fremragende film om følelsernes yderpunkter og tilværelsens ulidelige lethed.
Carsten Berg returns home after 15 years abroad. He gets into a fight with his father, who dies of a heart attack. Carsten must take over his fathers business. He is informed that he is suffering from an incurable disease.
The newly appointed director Hugo Henriksen gets into a fight and accidentally hits a prostitute. When Hugo is trying to leave the scene the girl dies.
Sten Lehtoja, a married, middle-aged businessman, picks up a young hitchhiker, Elsie, while driving to his summer home. Elsie spends the night and becomes his mistress. Later during the summer, Elsie also begins an affair with Reino, the teenage son of a local storekeeper. Sten offers to divorce his wife, and Elsie, attracted by the prospect of a secure social position, agrees to marry him when the divorce becomes final. One night when the couple are in bed, Reino climbs a ladder and attempts to force his way into their room; he falls and breaks his neck, and to avoid scandal Sten hides the body. But the strain of guilt ruins the romance, and Elsie contacts the police, who arrest her lover.
