In 15th century France, a teenage peasant leads the army to victories against the English after claiming she has heard the voices of saints.

The Midwestern University trustees have forced three teachers out for being suspected communists. Trustee Ed Keller has also threatened mild-mannered English professor Tommy Turner, because he plans to read a controversial piece of prose in class. Tommy is upset that his wife Ellen also suggested he not read the passage. Meanwhile, Ellen's old boyfriend, football player Joe Ferguson, comes to visit for the Homecoming.

Aging actress Arkidana pays summer visits to her brother Sorin and son Konstantin on a country estate. On one occasion, she brings with her Trigorin, a successful novelist. Meanwhile, Nina, a free and innocent girl on a neighboring estate, falls for Trigorin.

Lonely people in a quiet hotel find their lives shaken up by the arrival of the glamorous, assertive Helen Lancaster.

Mary Stuart, named Queen of Scotland when she was only six days old, is the last Roman Catholic ruler of Scotland. She's imprisoned at 23 by her cousin Elizabeth Tudor, the English Queen and her arch adversary. Nineteen years later, Mary's life is to end on the scaffold and with her execution, the last threat to Elizabeth's throne has been removed. The two Queens with their contrasting personalities make a dramatic counterpoint to history.

Ginny plots to keep her affair with the much older (and married) Philip from her regular boyfriend Greg.

Highly-placed Romans plot the murder of Julius Caesar.

Sir Robert Chiltern is a successful Government minister, well-off and with a loving wife. All this is threatened when Mrs Cheveley appears in London with damning evidence of a past misdeed. Sir Robert turns for help to his friend Lord Goring, an apparently idle philanderer and the despair of his father. Goring knows the lady of old, and, for him, takes the whole thing pretty seriously