A blissfully naïve young couple hopes to avoid the fate of the husband's unhappy parents, but as his jealous mother, children, and resentments come between them, the young couple falls into the same pitfalls.

After subconsciously imagining getting a divorce from his wife, a man examines his marriage and tries to convince himself that he still loves his family enough to stay with them.

A married woman ponders the kindness and subsequent coldness of her mother-in-law.

Despite his wife's pleas for him to behave at the annual family reunion, a man finds himself engaging in hand-to-hand combat with his brother-in-law after a few drinks.

After one woman's husband has an affair with the neighbor, the two women erect a bamboo fence so they never have to look at each other. Once the husband leaves, the married woman's son grows sicker as he longs for the company of his half-sister next door.

After a lawyer's wife leaves him, the lawyer returns home from work to learn from his son that there is an intruder in their home.

A jealous husband invites his beautiful wife’s worldly friend to dinner and the night ends with a tragic accident.

A woman's chronic illness stirs up long-suppressed conflict within her family. As she helplessly listens to her husband and brother-in-law argue about the best treatments, she wishes she could be there to defend her troubled husband.

An older mother frets over her third, most troublesome and combative daughter, who may be having an affair.

A supposedly peaceable day for the Werner family simmers with the annoyances and insecurities of each family member, finally boiling over in a public parental outburst. Emigrant father Werner Hartmann judges the strengths and flaws of his wife and daughters over the course of the day, finally boiling over in unwarranted anger when his daughter Annette makes a small mistake.