The Young Man with the Carnation
This first story follows a writer called Charles. Charles has grown rather successful, but finds himself lost and feeling as if God abandoned him. It's late at night, and he goes back to the hotel room to his wife. The doors are unlocked and she is sleeping. There is suddenly someone at the door. It is a young man holding carnation flowers. Charles tells him that he made a mistake, knocking at the wrong door. The young man turns and leaves.
To find himself, Charles decides to leave his wife with an apology note and goes outside. He stumbles upon some sailors, asks them to let him travel with them, ends up in a bar with them and after a few hours of talk and storytelling decides to go back.
The night is almost over, and he finds his wife sitting in the lobby waiting for him. They go back to their room, but Charles notices it being different from last night. He also wonders why his wife is not angry at him for the note he left. He then realizes that he went into the wrong room last night and that he's done a great misfortune to the young man with the carnation. Charles is happy with this change of events and grateful to be with his wife again finally realizing what he's been taking for granted.
The Sailor-boy's Tale
The sailor-boy called Simon notices a peregrine bird trapped on his ship, and he climbs up to save her. Some time passes and Simon's ship ends up on the coast of Norway. There he meets a young girl called Nora and falls in love. They agree to meet later that night. As the night falls Simon notices a Russian ship approaching. He befriends one of the crew members called Ivan.
As Simon is about to go to his meeting with Nora Ivan grabs him and doesn't let him leave. Simon panics and stabs him, which kills the man. He meets up with Nora and tells her what happened. She promises him undying love and tells him to run.
Simon hides in a bar among dancing people and suddenly an old woman enters looking for her son. She addresses him to be her son and takes him to her house. She tells him to wipe his bloody hands on her skirt. The Russian sailors enter the house looking for Simon but the old woman assures them that there is no one there but her and her son. They leave and the old woman reveals herself to be the peregrine bird Simon saved. This was her payback, and she helps him escape and live to tell the story.
The Pearls
It is a story about a newly married couple. Alexander is an officer and Jensine is a daughter of a rich landowner. They go on a honeymoon to the wilderness of Norway. As they are about to leave Jensine breaks the pearl necklace that Alexander gave to her, which belonged to his grandmother. Jensine takes to necklace to an old shoe-maker to fix it.
Jensine refuses to count the pearls immediately to make sure they are all there and only does it when they return to Denmark. She is astounded to discover that there is one pearl extra, and it is larger and more worth than all the rest combined.
Jensine decides to write the old shoemaker about this, and she receives a witty answer accusing her of doubting his honesty and explaining where the one pearl came from. She contemplates the passage of time and how the pearls are going to be handed over to some other hands in a hundred years and this continuance makes her happy.
The Invincible Slave-owners
It is a story about a young Danish gentleman called Alex being smitten by a new young girl coming to the hotel he's staying in. The girl's name is Mizzi, and she is accompanied by her strict governess. Everyone is in love with Mizzi's beauty and her complete dependence on her slaves, that is servants, and her inability to do anything by herself.
Alex accidentally overhears a conversation between Mizzi and her governess, who is actually her sister, and their trickery. They are actually poor pretending to be of a wealthy family in order to walk between the wealthy societies.
After they leave the hotel and Alex dresses up as a servant to observe Mizzi, he decides to go back and contemplates the relationship between slaves and slave-owners and how Mizzi and her governess will always find roles that promote this sort of relationship and that the two are inseparable.
The Dreaming Child
The Dreaming Child is a story about an orphan boy Jen, who is dreaming of having a wealthy family. His imagination is fueled by the friend of a woman who takes care of him called Mamzell Ane. Jen gets taken in by a wealthy young couple, Emilie and Jacob. Everyone at the house is smitten by the imaginative boy except Emilie, who is a little frightened by him.
A few months pass and Jen begins to show that he never saw this new home as his own and always talk of his old poor house. The boy soon falls ill and dies. Emilie falls into deep thought and refuses to talk.
Some time passes, and she and Jacob take a walk through the woods. Emilie begins to talk and tells Jacob that Jen was actually her real child whom she had when she cheated on him. The real truth is that she didn't actually cheat and that this is her longing for the child speaking to which Jacob agrees to be the truth.
It is a story about a village parson and his wife adopting a girl called Alkmene. As Alkmene is growing up she often times tries to escape her home because she can't bear to be loved. Wilhelm, parson's pupil, becomes Alkmene's best friend, and he is the one telling her story. Soon after, came the news that Alkmene inherited a great fortune. Wilhelm's father tries to persuade him to ask for her hand, but he refuses.
Some time passes and Wilhelm returns to the village to find that the old parson died. Alkmene persuades Wilhelm to go to Copenhagen. He accepts and is giddy with the thought of traveling with her, even thinks of proposing. Her motive for travel is to see an execution of a man. This obviously breaks the mood, and Wilhelm decides that it may not be the best idea to spend his life with this girl after all.
They part ways and after sixteen years pass, Wilhelm finds himself on a road to a farm that Alkmene bought with her inheritance. He only discovers the old Gertrude at home and from talking with her finds out that Alkmene made quite a grim reputation of herself there and her mother is even at the brink of insanity.
This story is based on a story about King Erik of Denmark and his mysterious death. The story begins with King contemplating his loneliness, detachment from the rest of the world and his connection to God. The next day his old friend Sune pays him a visit, and they ride together to the shore. There they encounter Granze, one of the servants pulling a large fish out of the water.
The three men have a drink together and Granze starts gutting the fish. In its body he discovers a blue ring. Sune hands it to the King and tells the marvelous story how that same ring belongs to his kinswoman and wife of the King's Lord High Constable called Ingeborg. The King resolves to meet the lady and give her her ring back.
Peter and Rosa
It is a sad story about a boy and a girl, Peter and Rosa. They grew up together and both of them ended up becoming dreamers. Peter wants to go to the sea instead of burying his heads in books all the time. He decides to tell this secret wish to Rosa one night and this makes her fall in love with him.
They end up on a road to reach a ship that both of them want to board and escape. Unfortunately, the icy path breaks beneath them, and they end up swept down by the current, holding onto each other.
