Dr Ragin is honest and intelligent but lacks the strength of character to see to it that life around him is honest and intelligent - which has serious consequences for the psyciatric ward he runs.

A frank extract from the notebook of an eminent - but aging - Russian professor.

In the midst of manoeuvres, a young officer attends a dinner party at the home of the von Rabbeck family.

A bored middle-aged adulterer picks up a young married woman little expecting the great love that will develop.

During a dinner conversation concerning the relative cruelty of capital punishment and life imprisonment, a banker and a lawyer make a bet.

The story of Olga, a woman who must always be in love with someone.

A late night encounter between an intelligent but lazy village dropout and the peasant wife of a signalman.

A woman marries a meek, scientifically minded doctor but can't help comparing him to her much-admired artistic friends.

A man falls in love with the sister of a ruined landowner, a predatory woman turned cold by a lust for money and status.

Grief has a sobering effect on a drunkard craftsman as he takes his sick wife to hospital during a blizzard.

Sophia, a beautiful married woman, and her neighbour Ilyin meet 'by accident' - he wants to declare his love for her, she to tell him to stop pursuing.