Carl Winsberg

A travelling theater-company performs Offenbach's "The Beautiful Helene" when an officer in the audience notices the similarity in appearance between the leading actor Leonard Pettersson and the king Charles XV. With Pettersson dressed as the king and the other actors as the royal suite, they all go to Herrsunda castle where the officer is trying to make an impression on his fiance.

The Beckius family is living near the border to Russia. The youngest son, Armas, is living a wild life that eventually leads to a break with the family after which he joins the Russian Revolution. When he returns to his home country a few years later the family on the enemy's side.

The orphan Alfred lives with two ladies in an idyllic cottage near a private golf course.