Loosely inspired from Gauguin's life, Charles Strickland is a middle-aged stockbroker who abandons his middle-classed life, his family, his duties to start painting, what he has always wanted to do. He is from now on a awful human being, wholly devoted to his ideal: beauty.

Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall in love against the wishes of their feuding families. Driven by their passion, the young lovers defy their destiny and elope, only to suffer the ultimate tragedy.

As the Nazis grow ever more powerful, Werner Roger grows up in an aristocratic household, hating his domineering father and making enemies in high places.

Long-nosed Cyrano de Bergerac helps an army officer woo Roxanne, the woman he loves.

A young student idealizes the lives of the inhabitants of a stylish Stockholm apartment building, only to find that it a nest of betrayal and sickness.

A schoolteacher mentors a talented young miner and seeks to get him into a university.

The magician Prospero, once Duke of Milan, now rules a small, enchanted island – but a storm brings visitors from the past.

A trio of middle-aged women set up housekeeping together.

Weekend guests of the Bliss family finds their hosts distinctly eccentric.