Barbara Frietchie

A plot is hatched by the evil Manager of the Circus to deprive its absent owner of the revenue from ticket sales and to eventually take over the circus for himself. The main obstacle for the Manager and his plans is Bindhu, the kind hearted Circus Clown who is loyal to the owner and threatens to expose the Manager. Bindhu and Laila, the beautiful trapeze artist, endear themselves to the children of the village and teach them the skills to become Circus performers. As the days go by, the villagers soon realize that the Manager is a crook who has turned the village into a crass commercial center, causes divisions among them and exploits them with his demands for rental payments from the food and drink stalls which they have set up outside the circus tents. The Manager Engineers and accident while Bindhu is performing one night on the trapeze. Bindhu has a bad fall and makes a slow recovery under the care of the Buddhist monk and the children. Fearful that his long absence might get him sacked, one of the children impersonates Bindhu and performs alongside Laila at the daily Circus shows. When Bindhu recovers and returns to work, the evil Manager fakes a robbery and blames Bindhu. The police arrest Bindhu and throw him in jail just as the Circus Owner returns after his trip abroad. However the children discover the plot and recover the allegedly stolen goods from the Manager's local henchman. The Manager and his fellow plotters are arrested. The Circus gives its last show and leaves the village with its original order restores and Bindhu and Laila promise to be friends forever with the children as they wave goodbye.

A man awakens with an incessant screaming in his ear and blood on his pillow. He soon finds himself pursued by clandestine forces that work to keep the populace unhearing and unknowing, and he is assisted by a Resistance group that smuggles people along an underground railroad from mindlessness to consciousness.

The film denounces the popular practice of witchcraft. Some impostors are able to deceive the villagers into believing that their Sheikh had murdered one of his disciples after discovering he had an affair with his wife. The Sheikh is driven from the village.

Film is based on the book "Early Joys", set in 1910 in the city of Saratov on the river Volga in Central Russia. The main characters are Kirill Izvekov and Lisa, his first love. She does not respond to Kirill Izvekov, and her behavior is hurting his feelings. So the young intellectual Kirill Izvekov becomes disillusioned with the world around him. He is strongly disapproving of the oppressive regime of the Tzar. By an unfortunate chance he becomes falsely accused of participation in the popular uprising and spends a year in prison. After that he matures into a professional revolutionary.