A perfect Swedish family’s skiing trip in the French Alps seems to be going just fine. But on day two, disaster strikes: The brunchers on the resort’s terrace think they’re witnessing a ‘controlled avalanche’, but when the snow sliding towards them gets too close for comfort, the crowd panics. Scarpering to save his own skin, dad Tomas left his family behind. The anticipated disaster failed to occur, and yet the family's world has been shaken to its core, a question mark hanging over the father in particular.

Paris, 1990. Jacques is a semi-renowned writer and single father in his thirties trying to maintain his sense of romance and humor in spite of the turmoil in his life and the world. While on a work trip to Brittany, he meets Arthur, an aspiring filmmaker in his early twenties, who is experiencing a sexual awakening and eager to get out of his parochial life. Arthur becomes instantly smitten with the older man.

Three snapshots at three locations that reflect the profane everyday life and the boldest fantasies of of today's genetic engineering: In Boston, hundreds of teams present their ideas for perfecting flora and fauna at the annual meeting of genetic engineering students. In South Korea, deceased pets have long since been cloned by the running meter, and on a barren Siberian island, knights of fortune restlessly dig for tusks and other organic gold in the thawing permafrost, from which the mammoth can be awakened.

Inge, a German maid, expects a child from a spoiled Zürichberg brat and wants to throw herself in front of a train. In an SBB shed, she meets three clochards who become her obstetricians. But that's only the beginning of the problems: Work is threatening - after all, mother and child have to be fed. And then there is the search for the father pending.

The rebellious Mika is sent to her grandmother Maria, who has a horse farm, by her academic parents during the summer holidays as a punishment. Mika is not interested in horses until she gets to know Ostwind, an untamed stallion. But with Mika he becomes tame immediately. When the 14-year-old learns that her grandmother is considering giving Ostwind to the horse butcher, she wants to learn to ride and prove at a tournament that the stallion deserves a second chance.