In his youth, the author Frej has already found a deep connection and passion with an upper-class girl, Stella Rabell, that has lasted between them through the decades. When Stella's older brother Alex falls victim to a stabbing attack, Frej begins to reminisce about the events of decades past. Frej's memories from the bright 1970s to the present day are filled with love, jealousy, betrayal, life and death.
An open-pit mine is unearthed in an idyllic town in Northern Finland. A strange chain of dreadful events affect the life of Pepe, a kind and optimistic woodcutter. But no matter what happens, Pepe seems to be fine with it, as if he holds a secret of existence that is hard to grasp.
This very serious drama, based on a true incident, explores the unremitting labor which put a young mother living in rural isolation into the situation of being charged with having thrown her children down a well. Her husband is an unimaginative, work-obsessed man who cannot see that her constant hard work without any support or sympathy from anyone is driving the sensitive woman to consider suicide. When the loutish fellow discovers that his wife and three children are missing, he calls the police, and a manhunt begins. The police discover the oldest boy alive, and find that the mother tried to drown herself, but has survived. The two younger children remained missing.
The beautiful island of Sunnanö in the Swedish archipelago is home to a popular B&B run by Anna-Lisa and her son Oskar. Anna-Lisa has summoned her daughter Jonna, an actress, and son Lasse, an opportunist, to the island. It is the first time in years that they are together again. When Anna-Lisa is found dead one morning, the siblings learn that she had terminal cancer: Her will stipulates that all three siblings must run the family B&B together for a year, or they won't inherit it at all. It is a mother’s last effort to reunite her children. But it will also confront them with the family’s unsolved past, present forces of attraction, and a very dark secret buried in a most unfortunate place...
