Annie and Matthew, a young married couple, find their infant daughter screaming with a high temperature and an earache. Matthew calls the doctor, who promises to phone in a prescription to the pharmacist the following day. During the night, the neighborhood wakes up due to a massive power outage. When Matthew visits the pharmacist the next day, he is unable to get the required medicine due to the blackout. Matthew steals the medicine when the pharmacist is not looking. Social unrest ensues due to the persistent blackout, leading Matthew and his wife's best friend, Joe, to buy a shotgun, and for Joe to stay with them during the outage. When an intruder breaks into the couple's house the following night, Matthew and Joe chase him outside, where a neighbor shoots the intruder. The neighbors conspire to cover up the fact that the deceased intruder was not armed. As the blackout continues for days over a large area, more chaos occurs. As a result, the group decides to flee to Annie's parents' house, 530 miles away. They do not have enough fuel to travel the whole way, so they stop by an abandoned car hoping to siphon some. A man, Gary, is lying in the backseat. After Joe notices that Gary has a handgun, he heads back to their vehicle to get his own shotgun. Joe aims the shotgun at Gary to scare him off, but he shoots Joe and steals their vehicle. Matthew walks an hour to a farmhouse to try to get help for his family. The occupant, Raymond, refuses to help him initially, as he does not trust him. Matthew collects the shotgun and returns to the house, hoping to steal the car. He breaks in to get the car keys, and a standoff ensues between him and Raymond. When Raymond's young daughter enters the room, Matthew returns to civility, lowering his weapon. Raymond agrees to help Matthew, and soon afterwards Joe is loaded into an ambulance. Society returns to normal once the power returns, though Annie, Matthew and their neighbors are somewhat changed by their experience.

In Russia, the media covers Tony Stark 's disclosure of his identity as Iron Man. Ivan Vanko, mourning the death of his father Anton Vanko —a former Stark Industries employee, sees this and builds the same miniature arc reactor as Stark's using old Stark Industries blueprints left behind by Anton. Six months later, Tony wants to continue the legacy of his father Howard, and re-institutes the Stark Expo in New York City's Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. He also resists pressure to turn over his armored suits to the government and Stark's rival, Justin Hammer. However, Stark learns that the palladium core in the arc reactor that keeps him alive and powers the armor is slowly poisoning him, and he is unable to find a substitute. Growing increasingly despondent about his impending death, and refusing to tell anyone about his condition, Stark appoints his assistant Pepper Potts as CEO of Stark Industries and promotes Stark employee "Natalie Rushman" to replace her as his assistant. Stark competes in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix, where he is attacked in the middle of the race by Vanko, who wields electrified whips powered by his arc reactor. Stark dons his armor and defeats Vanko, but the armor is severely damaged. Vanko explains that he intended to prove to the world that Iron Man is not invincible. Impressed by Vanko's performance, Hammer fakes Vanko's death while breaking him out of prison and asks him to build a line of armored suits to upstage Stark. Vanko decides that unmanned drones are better to eliminate the human factor. During his birthday party, Stark gets drunk while wearing the Iron Man suit. Annoyed by Tony's recklessness, Stark's best friend, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes, dons Stark's prototype armor and tries to restrain him. The fight ends in a stalemate, and Rhodes confiscates the prototype armor for the U.S. Air Force. Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., approaches Stark. Fury reveals that "Rushman" is S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff and that Fury personally knew Howard Stark, who was a founder of S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury explains that Vanko's father and Howard invented the arc reactor together, but Howard had Anton deported when the latter tried to sell it. The Soviets then sent Anton to the Gulag. Fury gives Stark some of his father's old material. In a diorama of the 1974 Stark Expo, Stark finds a diagram of the atomic structure of a new element. With the aid of his A.I., J.A.R.V.I.S., Stark determines it can replace his arc reactor's current palladium core, and successfully synthesizes it. When Stark learns that Vanko is still alive, he goes to Hammer's exhibition at the expo. The armored drones are unveiled, with Rhodes – in a heavily weaponized version of the prototype armor, dubbed "War Machine" – as their leader. Just as Stark arrives to warn Rhodes, Vanko takes remote control of all the drones and Rhodes's armor and attacks Stark. Hammer is arrested for breaking Vanko out of prison while Romanoff and Stark's bodyguard Happy Hogan infiltrate Hammer's factory. Vanko escapes, but Romanoff gains access to Hammer Industries software and returns control of Rhodes's armor to him. Together, Stark and Rhodes defeat Vanko, who dies by suicide via blowing up his suit and the drones. At a debriefing, Fury informs Stark that because of his difficult personality, S.H.I.E.L.D. intends to use him only as a consultant moving forward. Stark and Rhodes receive medals for their heroism. In a post-credits scene, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson discovers a large hammer in New Mexico.

Finbar McBride, a quiet, unmarried man with dwarfism, deeply loves railroads and leads a solitary existence. He works in a Hoboken, New Jersey model train hobby shop owned by his elderly and similarly taciturn friend, Henry. He keeps to himself and is uncomfortable when people react to his size. When Henry dies, Fin learns that the hobby shop is to be closed and that Henry has bequeathed him a rural property with an abandoned train depot on it. He moves into the old building hoping for a life of solitude but becomes reluctantly enmeshed in the lives of his neighbors. Cuban American Joe Oramas operates his father's roadside snack truck while the elder man recovers from an illness, and artist Olivia Harris is trying to cope with the sudden death of her young son two years earlier and its ramifications on her marriage to David, from whom she is separated. Olivia's initial and second meetings with Fin involve her dangerously distracted driving. Cleo is a young girl who shares Fin's interest in trains and wants him to talk to her class about them. Emily, the local librarian, is a young woman dismayed to discover she is pregnant by her ne'er-do-well boyfriend. Joe, relentlessly upbeat and talkative, cracks Fin's reserve. The two take daily walks along the tracks, and after Olivia gives Fin a movie camera, Joe drives alongside a passing train so that Fin can film it. Joe and Fin sleep at Olivia's house after watching the footage and the next morning, meet a flustered, unannounced David. The trio's tentative friendship is threatened when Olivia descends into a deep depression and disappears. While Fin waits for Joe at a bar, Emily seeks solace in Fin, who realizes human interaction may not be wholly unpleasant. However, when Joe fails to show up and Fin tries to protect Emily from her boyfriend at a bar he pushes Fin aside, causing Fin to lapse back into his asocial behavior. The next day, Joe comes by to apologize, but a frustrated Fin tells him that he just wants to be left alone. Hurt, Joe takes his truck and leaves the train site. Soon after, Emily comes to apologize for the trouble earlier, and after she and Fin share a kiss, she spends the night with Fin after asking if she can "just sleep" there. Cleo asks Fin if Olivia is coming back; he replies that he doesn't know. Keeping an eye on Olivia's house, he sees her arguing on the phone with David and goes onto her porch. Olivia angrily tells him to leave. Fin spends the night drinking and, collapsing on the track, gets passed over by a train, unharmed but for his pocket watch. Fin walks to Olivia's home only to find she has attempted suicide. Olivia reveals that David is having another baby with a different woman. Fin tidies up Olivia's home while she recuperates in the hospital and reconciles with Joe. Fin finds the courage to talk to the schoolchildren about trains. Olivia, Joe, and Fin share a meal at Olivia's house, their conversation filled with some small talk and reconciliation. Olivia and Joe tease Fin about Emily, suggesting he see her again.

Following the death of their mother, Nawal, an Arab immigrant in Canada, Jeanne and her twin brother Simon meet with French Canadian notary Jean Lebel, their mother's employer and family friend. Nawal's will refers to not keeping a promise, denying her a proper gravestone and casket, unless Jeanne and Simon track down their mysterious brother, of whose existence they were previously unaware, and their father, who they believed was dead. Nawal has left two letters; one is to be delivered to Jeanne and Simon's father, and the other is to be delivered to their brother. Jeanne accepts; Simon, on the other hand, seemingly having had a more difficult relationship with Nawal and her unusual personality, is reluctant to join Jeanne on this pursuit. Nawal came from a Christian family in a Levantine country, and she fell in love with a refugee named Wahab, resulting in her pregnancy. Her family murders her lover and nearly shoots her in an honour killing, but her grandmother spares her, making her promise to leave the village after her baby's birth and start a new life in the city of Daresh. The grandmother tattoos the back of the baby's heel and sends him to an orphanage in Kfar Khout. While Nawal is at university in Daresh a few years later, civil war and war crimes break out, with Nawal opposing the war on human rights grounds. Her son's orphanage is destroyed by Muslim militants. Nawal leaves Daresh to try to find her son and boards a bus full of Muslim refugees. Christian Nationalists shoot the driver and fire into the bus full of passengers, only missing Nawal and a mother with her daughter. As the Nationalists prepare to set the bus on fire, the survivors try to escape towards the back of the bus. Nawal shows her crucifix and tells the Nationalists that she is Christian. She attempts to save the girl by claiming her as her own, but the girl runs towards the burning bus, calling for her mother, and is shot dead. Nawal finds her way back to town and joins the Muslim fighters. She tutors the son of a nationalist leader, eventually earning enough trust to smuggle in a gun to shoot the leader. She is imprisoned in Kfar Ryat and sings through the screams of other prisoners, earning her the nickname "The Woman Who Sings". To attempt to break her, she is raped by torturer Abou Tarek who leaves her saying, "sing now". She consequently gives birth to the twins. After traveling to her mother's native country, Jeanne gradually uncovers this past and persuades Simon to join her. With help from Lebel, they learn their brother's name is Nihad of May (the month he was born in) and track down Chamseddine, a local warlord. Simon meets with him and Chamseddine reveals that he attacked the orphanage in Kfar Khout, where he spares the children and converts Nihad into an Islamic child soldier. He then reveals the war-mad Nihad was captured by the nationalists, turned by them, trained as a torturer, and then sent to Kfar Ryat, where he took the name Abou Tarek, making him both the twins' maternal half-brother and father; as such, both letters are addressed to the same person. Like Nawal, Nihad's superiors gave him a new life in Canada after the war. By chance, Nawal encountered him at a Canadian swimming pool and saw both the tattoo and his face, realizing her long-lost son was her rapist all along. The shock of learning the truth caused Nawal to suffer a stroke, which led to her decline and untimely death at age 60. The twins find Nihad in Canada and deliver Nawal's letters to him. He opens both of them; the first letter addresses him as the twins' father, the rapist, and is filled with contempt. The second letter addresses him as the twins' brother and is instead written with caring words, saying that he, as Nawal's son, is deserving of love. Horrified at the truth, Nihad tries to chase after the twins, but they are gone. Nawal gets her gravestone. Sometime later, Nihad visits it.

During a July 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in London, friends Haley, Jemma, Radina, Emma, Caroline, and Teddy join the weekly Zoom call they have been using to stay in touch. Haley has arranged for them to partake in a virtual séance led by the medium Seylan, who emphasizes that they should not disrespect the spirits, though only Haley and Caroline takes it seriously. Teddy is forced to leave the call when his girlfriend Jinny disconnects him. Jemma claims to feel intense tension around her neck and begins to cry, explaining that she feels the presence of a school friend who killed himself by hanging. Seylan's internet cuts out and disconnects her from the call, prompting a laughing Jemma to admit that she made the story up because she was bored, which angers Haley. While they are arguing, Haley's chair is suddenly pulled across the room, to the shock of the group. A series of terrifying phenomena commence: the legs of a hanging corpse appear in Caroline's attic when she goes to investigate a noise; when Haley points her instant camera down the hallway to take a photo of her living room, it shows a similar figure hanging from the ceiling; and Emma's wine glass shatters untouched. As the girls panic, Haley gets back in touch with Seylan and explains the situation. Seylan explains that Jemma's prank, fabricating a deceased person, may have led a demon to take on the guise of the deceased person and the identity like a mask, allowing the demon to pass into the living's world. She instructs them to close the séance, but the demon interrupts her and she is disconnected again. The girls attempt to close the circle following her instructions. Relieved that the ordeal seems to be over, the group members begin preparing to leaving the call, when Caroline suddenly appears to be flung into the camera. Emma, forgetting to switch off a filter, turns her camera towards her living room, where the filter places a mask on the face of an invisible figure which then turns to look at her. She scatters flour on the floor, in which footprints approaching her appear, and she is attacked before escaping into her bedroom. Alan's body drops down behind Radina, prompting her to flee, but the demon kills her. Caroline's camera turns back on to show the demon smashing her head into her keyboard while she pleads for help before cutting out. Haley is pulled backward through the door of her room. Jemma, who lives around the corner from Haley, rushes over. Teddy returns to the call to see that only Emma remains. Unaware of everything that has occurred, Teddy believes Emma is playing a prank on him, but he is attacked by the demon after it takes the form of a horrifying humanoid figure. He is chased into his garden, where Jinny is lifted into the air and has her neck snapped. He runs away and hides, using a lighter to see where he is going, but the demon distracts him with an eerie music box his brother used to scare him with as a child. The demon knocks him down and he drops the lighter, causing a fire that burns him to death. Emma's bedroom door opens, and she throws a blanket which drapes itself over an invisible human shape. She opens her window to escape, and falls to her death. Jemma breaks into Haley's home, and the demon smashes a bottle against her head and starts to destroy the kitchen, but Jemma recovers and finds Haley hiding under her desk. They attempt to escape the house using the flash from Haley's camera to light the way. The demon appears in the final flash of light, and rushes at them as the Zoom call timer expires.

Felix (Gracia) is an architect who lives in a large house. He appears to be sensitive about visitors after a recent separation from his wife Vera (López). One night, a man asks to come in and use the phone. Felix allows him to do so and leaves the room for a few minutes, but then he discovers the man is nowhere to be seen. For the next few days, Felix hears strange noises in the house, suspecting the man actually never left. Felix then calls the police who are unable to find anything. He later calls Vera and asks her to visit him, eventually resulting in them having sex. But he becomes paranoid when he thinks he hears her talking to someone in the kitchen and accidentally injures her with a knife. Felix's suspicions are heightened when his neighbour's dog enters the house and appears to hear noises from upstairs too. His neighbour, Mrs Müller, runs after the dog and appears to be thrown down the stairs, killing herself and her dog in the process. The police determine that she merely slipped accidentally. Eventually, Felix encounters someone in his house and shoots him, leaving that person locked in the attic. Felix locks down his house, throws the keys in the sewer and leaves. He naps in his car until he is awakened by two children who are looking at a picture that Felix drew of the strange man. They identify him as "Martin" and points Felix towards Martin's house. Felix sneaks into Martin's house and sees Martin's wife; Claudia (also played by López) who is paralysed from the waist down following a recent accident. Felix stays hidden in her house for the next few days and knows that Martin is an archeologist who is currently away on a business trip. He also discovers that Martin has been unkind to Claudia since her accident. Felix becomes infatuated with Claudia and manages to speak to her by hiding in plain sight at a surprise birthday party. Eventually, Felix alerts Claudia and Martin's friend Bruno to his presence by breaking a vase and finding a key to the locked door of the basement. Claudia reveals to Bruno that she actually locked Martin in the basement. Felix escapes the house through the basement (getting stabbed by Bruno in the process and possibly injuring or killing Bruno and Claudia in turn), which leads to a tunnel where he finds Martin's corpse. The tunnel leads to Felix's own basement. Felix climbs upstairs and discovers that the "man" he had shot a couple of nights ago was actually Vera who, dying on the floor, reveals she is pregnant.

A terrible storm causes hundreds of dikes to break in Zeeland, resulting in the North Sea flood of 1953. Julia, a single mother living with her parents, is caught in the middle of a catastrophic flood. She is rescued from drowning and taken to safety by her neighbor Aldo, who is a member of the armed forces. However, her baby is left in a wooden box in the attic of Julia's parental home. Together Julia and Aldo return to the disaster area to look for the baby. When they finally find the box, it is empty, and they conclude that someone must have taken the child. The child ended up with a woman who recently lost her own baby in a car accident. Julia met her but because the woman did not want to lose the baby, she hid him from Julia. Eighteen years later, Julia meets her son and the woman again and she finds out what has happened.

Roman-Catholic priest Doug Jones witnesses his parents die in a VFX car fire. He travels to China on a spiritual journey and comes across ninjas searching for an artifact said to turn people into the "Dragon Warrior". After becoming infected by the artifact, Doug begins having nightmares and he gets a kiss from his mentor Father Stewart. Doug then goes out into the forest late at night as he transforms into a dinosaur. He saves Carol, a prostitute, from a thug. Waking up in Carol's bed naked, with no memory of the night before, Doug initially believes they had sex, but after Carol tells him what happened he realizes the truth. Unpersuaded by her suggestion to use his new power to fight crime and get rid of people they believe are beyond spiritual salvation, he returns to the church for confession; speaking to Frankie Mermaid, Carol's pimp, he learns Frankie is the one responsible for killing Doug's parents. Enraged, Doug proceeds to kill Frankie and, now convinced about her plan to fight crime, returns to Carol needing her assistance. Father Stewart, learning of Doug's new power, encourages Doug to lose it and stop killing. He takes him to see Altair, an exorcist, hoping to remove Doug's power. In a flashback, it is revealed that Father Stewart saw a war buddy shot while off guard and that his love interest was killed by a mine. In the present, the exorcism fails and Doug transforms, slashing one of Father Stewart's eyes. Returning to Carol, Doug is confronted by ninjas. Father Stewart wakes up in a camp of drug-dealing Christian ninjas led by Wei Chan, who plans to sell highly addictive cocaine to people and then cut off supplies. Wei Chan hopes this will lead the addicts to turn to the church, where he will eventually take over, and use them as his army. Father Stewart rejects this idea, and is killed. Doug and Carol are confronted by ninjas, and plan to stop Wei Chan. Doug is stopped by Sam, the White Ninja, who he later realizes is his brother. Doug catches Sam off guard and uses telekinesis to take Sam's sword and kill him. Doug and Carol fight off more ninjas, and the latter is badly wounded. Doug, transforming into a velociraptor and fighting off the remaining ninjas, is shot by Wei Chan with an arrow containing venom to stop his transformation. Doug's hands are immune to the venom, and he proceeds to kill Wei Chan using his dinosaur powers, among other techniques. Doug carries Carol to the hospital where she recovers. Doug, no longer a priest and with a billion-dollar bounty on his head, plans to travel the world with Carol, and continue their original plan to kill off criminals.

At the close of the Iraq War, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Shane Matthews, a sniper, along with his spotter, Sergeant Allen Isaac, are sent to investigate a pipeline construction site in the Iraqi desert where contractors and their security detail have all fallen victim to a sniper. The pair patiently wait 22 hours on overwatch before determining that the site is clear. Matthews proceeds to investigate the site, but is shot by a famed Iraqi sniper nicknamed "Juba". Isaac tries to rescue the dying Matthews, but he is also wounded in the right knee and has his radio damaged and his water bottle destroyed in the process. Alone, Isaac takes cover behind an unsteady wall and tends to his wounds. The sniper has a radio tuned into the American channel, and uses it to communicate with Isaac initially under the pretense of being a high ranking allied soldier at another site. The deception allows the sniper to get other useful information from Isaac. Throughout their various one-sided attempts at conversation, we learn that the sniper does not claim to be the mythical Juba mentioned earlier in the film, a nom de guerre for various Iraqi Insurgent snipers notorious for filming their attacks on American soldiers. Matthews regains consciousness and subtly gets Isaac's attention that he is still alive. Matthews slowly crawls towards his rifle in the midst of the dusty wind while Isaac distracts Juba with small talk. Matthews believes that the sniper is hiding at the top of some rubble nearby and fires in that direction. The dusty wind settles quickly. The sniper sees Matthews and fires, injuring Matthews in the left shoulder as he crawled towards the wall, and kills him with a second shot. Isaac's attempts to call headquarters for help are stymied by the loss of his radio antenna. He attempts to repair this with one from a dead contractor's radio, only to discern that the sniper had used the earlier response team as a ruse to call for help and lure another response force into his jaws. Isaac hears the rescue helicopters coming, so he pushes down the wall and uses Matthews' rifle to try to kill Juba, or at least flush him out so the rescue chopper can see the trap. Juba fires at Isaac twice and misses. Isaac now has the sniper's location and fires his only round. Isaac stands up and waits for Juba's next shot, but it never comes. Thus he assumes his shot was successful, and Juba is either injured or dead. The helicopters then land and the rescue team picks up Isaac and Matthews. Once the helicopters take off, Juba shoots down both in rapid succession. He is then heard over the radio, calling for another rescue to set a new trap.

In 2005, Alex lives in a village with his mother Klara and his cruel, unloving father Björn. Klara finally leaves the family, Alex's closest friend Anna moves to Stockholm, and Alex moves in with his uncle. Ten years later, Alex has become a famous musician in Stockholm. During Midsummer, the city is struck by multiple explosions, one of which kills his mother. Alex splits with his manager and goes back to his home village to buy the church piano that he and Anna used to play when they were younger. There, Alex again meets Anna, who has moved back to the village. When he learns that she has a husband, Kim, and daughter, Elin, he angrily departs. As attacks on Sweden worsen and the military is activated, people begin crashing their cars in the rain and Alex returns to help Anna and her family. After the Parliament is destroyed and communications networks become unavailable, Anna's mother, a government minister, manages to escape Stockholm and heads into the country, where she is rescued by the military. Meanwhile, Alex's father Björn, who works at a transformer station, kills a group of armed men who are attacking the electricity network. Helicopters and dead birds crash to the ground, apparently affected by contaminated rain, and civilians come to the station seeking safety in its bomb shelter. Among them are Anna and Alex, who is injured and unconscious. After Anna leaves in search of Elin, Alex comes to and tells his unapologetic father that Klara is dead. Anna returns with her daughter and tells Alex that her husband and many others were killed by helicopters. However, Kim is in fact alive. When helicopters approach the power station, the civilians head to the village church to meet the military, whom they have contacted by radio. The enemy attacks the military and kills Anna's mother, but Alex destroys an enemy helicopter by crashing a car into it and Björn takes down another helicopter by crashing his plane into it. He dies but saves Alex, Anna, and Elin. In the village church, which has been destroyed and is on fire, Alex tells Anna that Kim is still alive, then plays the piano until he loses his memory due to chemical weapons in the rain. Anna is taken away by Kim. News clips during the credits indicate that 800,000 Swedes have lost their memory, and images of Vladimir Putin suggest that Russia was behind the attacks.

A group of 30 scientists travel from Earth to a nearly-identical alien planet that is culturally and technologically centuries behind. The inhabitants of this planet have brutally suppressed a renaissance movement, murdering anybody they consider to be an intellectual, and thus the planet is stuck in the middle ages. Anton, one of the scientists from Earth, is sent to infiltrate the local populace of the Kingdom of Arkanar and help them progress as a society, although he is forbidden from getting involved with local politics or forcibly interfering with the advancement of technology or culture. He assumes the identity of Don Rumata, a nobleman who resides in a large castle surrounded by poverty. There, he lives with Ari, a young woman whom he has taken as his bride, and the juvenile prince of Arkanar. Rumata's presence divides local opinion; some treat him as a God, others despise him. Don Rumata tasks himself with finding Budakh, a doctor who has been kidnapped by Don Reba, the tyrannical prime minister of Arkanar. Reba's militia, referred to as "the Greys", are responsible for the murder of many intellectuals, including scientists and writers. During his travels, Rumata witnesses the backward ways of the locals and becomes increasingly frustrated with them. Slavery is rife, and the influence of Reba's Greys turns Arkanar into a police state. One night, while guarding the prince, the Greys besiege the castle and attempt to arrest Rumata. Rumata attempts to escape, but is ambushed and taken before his rival, Don Reba. Reba does not trust Rumata and claims he is an impostor. Rumata reasons with Reba and is freed, along with Budakh. Later, Rumata meets his friend Pampa, a drunken and washed-up baron. Rumata teaches Pampa his famed signature sword-fighting technique. When Rumata returns to his castle, he finds the local area has been taken over by religious zealots in his absence, called "the Blacks", who prove to be just as oppressive as the Greys. Rumata discovers that Budakh is an impostor, and that the real Budakh is still imprisoned at Don Reba's castle. He returns to Reba on peaceful terms and searches the sewers of the castle for Budakh. He eventually finds him, as well as Baron Pampa, who has been tortured by Reba's men. Rumata, Pampa and Budakh escape Reba's castle, but Pampa is shot by archers and killed. Upon returning to his village, Rumata becomes annoyed when he discovers that Budakh, apparently a great doctor and intellectual, is actually a bumbling fool who is unable to even urinate properly. He sends Budakh away and retires to his castle. The next day, the Greys attack the castle and kill Ari. Enraged, Rumata butchers their leader. The next morning, a group of travelers investigates the aftermath of the ensuing battle, which has cost the lives of most of Arkanar's inhabitants. Among the dead civilians and soldiers, they find a lone survivor, Don Rumata. The leader of the travelers, another incognito scientist from Earth, offers to take Rumata back to Earth, but Rumata refuses. He instead gives the fellow scientist advice—that it is "hard to be a God". Months later, during the winter, Rumata is shown traveling away from Arkanar.

Zsolt, a corrupt businessman in Bucharest in league with Spanish gangsters, has been smuggling drug money out of the country in mattresses. Among those on his payroll are his mistress, the glamorous Gilda, and Cristi, a police inspector whose payoffs are left in his mother's cellar. When Zsolt is arrested, the Spaniards concoct a plot to free both him and the latest mattressfuls of cash. Cristi will be seduced by Gilda and taken to the Spanish island of La Gomera to learn El Silbo, the native whistling language. Back in Bucharest, he will then poison Zsolt, who will be rushed to hospital under guard. Once Cristi has ascertained the room number, he will whistle it to Gilda outside and the Spaniards will then rescue Zsolt. Many things go wrong and most characters get killed while Cristi, badly injured, ends up in hospital. Gilda finds out the room number and whistles to him to join her at a hotel in Singapore. (The eight chapters of the film are not chronological, and the real-time sequence is: 1. Zsolt 2. Mama 3. Gilda 4. Kiko 5. Sylbo language 6. Paco 7. Magda 8. Cristi.)