When a boy is framed after an act of senseless violence by his friends, they turn against him for trying to tell the truth.

Casper has never met his father and lives alone with his mother Marit. He likes to spend his free time playing the piano, so he is thrilled when he is chosen to become a pianist in a youth orchestra – and especially when he makes friends with Anouk. She knows what Casper is going through when he learns that his mother is seriously ill: Marit has cancer. Scared of what might happen to her, Casper and his best friend Pim decide to find his father.

A David's classmate, Jochem, is harassed by three bullies, but nobody does anything at school, not even David, who feels guilty for not pointing out the culprits.

In the 1890s, Father Adolf Daens goes to Aalst, a textile town where child labor is rife, pay and working conditions are horrible, the poor have no vote, and the Catholic church backs the petite bourgeoisie in oppressing workers. He writes a few columns for the Catholic paper, and soon workers are listening and the powerful are in an uproar. He's expelled from the Catholic party, so he starts the Christian Democrats and is elected to Parliament. After Rome disciplines him, he must choose between two callings, as priest and as champion of workers. In subplots, a courageous young woman falls in love with a socialist and survives a shop foreman's rape; children die; prelates play billiards.

A zoo veterinarian gets caught up in a grisly adventure as she finds herself leading the city-wide hunt for a monstrous lion terrorizing the Dutch capital of Amsterdam.