Dans ce conte oriental illustré à la manière des miniatures persanes, Ali, un jeune pêcheur, sauve la vie d'un pirate qui a dissimulé un trésor sur l'île aux oiseaux. Ali le retrouve avec l'aide des habitants de l'île, et ces nouvelles richesses apportent leur lot de joies et de peines. En effet personne ne songe plus à travailler et bientôt la famine menace la population...
Lucifer charge Kokes, un assistant peu dégourdi, d'aller chercher sur terre une princesse de mauvaise vie. Celui-ci ramène par erreur Káča (Catherine), une villageoise pleine d'entrain qui sème bientôt la zizanie en Enfer. Kokes est donc obligé de la ramener sur terre où un jeune garçon nommé Jíra prendra soin d'elle.
Z Hatvanu do Haliče : Comme les deux autres, ce premier épisode se situe pendant la Première Guerre mondiale. Dans une petite gare entre Hatvan et Halič, le soldat Chvéïk, soupçonné par son supérieur d'avoir bu du cognac — ce qui est formellement interdit —, invente une histoire à dormir debout pour se tirer d'affaire.
Doctor Marek (Jiří Menzel) is shocked when his beloved nurse, Mima (Dagmar Veškrnová), signs a contract with foreign car manufacturer Ferat to work as a rally-driver. Rumours abound that the Ferat sports car runs not on petrol, but on human blood.
Âgé de douze ans, Jirka, un orphelin passe son enfance à la campagne chez son grand-père qui sous sa rudesse apparente, aime profondément son petit-fils. Celui-ci passe beaucoup de son temps dans la nature luxuriante au milieu de laquelle ils habitent. Dans la rivière, la Přivoznik, à l'eau limpide qui coule non loin de leur maisonnette, Jirka trompe sa solitude en pêchant et en observant les poissons et surtout un qu'il appelle en cognant une pierre sur un rocher pour lui donner à manger avec la main. Mais ce dernier est menacé par un énorme brochet qu'il décide de capturer. Tout d'abord ses camarades du village se moquent de lui car ce n'est pas simple; il va casser sa ligne, se fâcher avec son grand-père, se réfugier chez son oncle qui est bûcheron dans une forêt voisine. Mais le moment venu, son grand-père va lui prêter une autre ligne pour capturer le gros prédateur et ses camarades seront là pour l'aider.
Julie is a bankrupt merchant's daughter who, as the only one of the three daughters, chooses to save her father's life. She goes to the Haunted Wood's Castle where she meets Netvor. Netvor has no qualms about killing Julie, but her beauty prevents him from doing so. Although Julie is forbidden to look at him, she starts to love him and the love rescues him from his curse.
À la suite d'un violent orage, un étranger se retrouve une nuit entière aux côtés d'une jeune femme naïve, Andrea, la fille d'un cheminot. Mais l’homme, sans scrupules, l’abandonne à son sort au petit matin en la laissant enceinte. Désespérée, elle rencontre un autre homme au cours d’une nuit dramatique qu’elle finira par épouser. Au moment où elle se croyait heureuse, elle se retrouve par hasard face à son premier amant...
Le film se divise en trois épisodes de durées équivalentes. Ils sont précédés de très courts plans sur divers repas accompagnés d'un fond sonore propre à une cuisine (chocs d'assiettes et de couverts, conversations) puis d'un panneau indiquant le repas à venir. Les différents repas pourraient symboliser différentes classes sociales : la classe ouvrière au petit-déjeuner, la classe moyenne au déjeuner, les élites au dîner.
The film is set shortly after the World War II (1945 and 1946) in one of the suburbs of Prague (it was shot in Michle). The main character Eda Souček (Václav Jakoubek) attends a boys' elementary school where he belongs to a class with a complete lack of discipline. After their teacher Maxová (Daniela Kolářová) goes insane during one of her classes, the schoolmaster (Rudolf Hrušínský) has to implement special measures. He employs a new male teacher Igor Hnízdo (Jan Tříska), who is said to be a great war hero. Authoritative Hnízdo immediately introduces corporal punishment which, as he explains, is not normally allowed but the school has received an exception from the Ministry of Education as a result of their dreadful behaviour. Despite his strict methods, the boys soon become charmed by the man. They love his battlefront stories and the fact that he is always armed and wears a uniform. Eda sees him as the very opposite of his own father (Zdeněk Svěrák) whom he considers to be too cowardly. Hnízdo makes the same positive impression on all people he meets (including Eda's mother portrayed by Libuše Šafránková). Nevertheless, his persona is also surrounded by many controversies. For example his war heroism is disputed as he is unable to provide any accurate information about his military service. There is even an unconfirmed rumour that Hnízdo was only guarding goats during the war. But the boys from his class ignore all negative comments and even fight those who are spreading the rumours. Hnízdo's reputation suffers after he is accused of having a sexual relationship with local twins who attend a girls' school in the same area. He is forced to leave because this is not the first time he has been involved in a similar affair. The formerly unmanageable boys begin to defend Hnízdo and call for his return. The accusation is finally withdrawn and Hnízdo comes back to the class. He states that the way they were dealing with the accusation is a proof that the physical punishments are no longer necessary.
In January 1942, Adolf Hitler appoints Fedor von Bock to command Army Group South and supervise Operation Blau. The German forces advance in the south of Russia, scattering the Soviets and approaching Stalingrad, that seems on the verge of falling to the enemy's hands. The movie ends with Vasily Chuikov assuming command of the 62nd Army at September.
Alice appears to be in her own bedroom, when a taxidermically stuffed rabbit comes to life and breaks out of its glass case. Alice follows the rabbit through the drawer of a desk into a cavern. She subsequently falls through a bucket and seemingly down an elevator shaft. Wonderland itself is a mix of drab household-like areas with incongruous relationships of space and size. The Queen's execution sentences are carried out by the White Rabbit with a pair of scissors. At the film's end, Alice wakes in her room, discovers that the rabbit is still missing from his glass case, and finds a secret compartment where he keeps scissors. She ponders whether or not she will cut his head off. The film is ambiguous about whether this room is Alice's real world or "Wonderland".
A group of teenagers are invited to a skiing workshop in the mountains, without being told how or why they were picked as participants. There are eleven of them, but the camp supervisors insist that there should be only ten, and that one of them is an intruder. As the group find themselves cut off from the outside world, strange things begin to happen; the supervisors seem intent to create an atmosphere of hostility, turning the participants against each other, even urging them to kill each other. The supervisors eventually reveal themselves as extraterrestrials who demand that the group pick one among them to be sacrificed. They refuse, however, and in a panic set the cottage on fire and make a narrow escape on a lift used for timber transport, leaving no man behind.