At a party with diverse guests are dealing with the events os August 23rd, 1944. Guests are serving as metaphors for different parts of society.

Based on a theatrical text by Romanian writer Ion Luca Caragiale (1852-1912), who was a bitter and funny witness of the turn-of-the-20th-century Romanian bourgeois mores, Carnival Scenes manages to preserve and further enhance the slightly hysteric atmosphere of his plays. Pintilie creates a strange combination of carnival scenes which is brought to the screen as a burlesque, fast-paced, screwball comedy with a meditative undertone. This film was banned in Romania for a decade until the death of Ceausescu in 1989 and was only released after the 1989 revolution.

1848, Transylvania. Avram Iancu raises a peasant army to defend the rights of the Romanian ethnics, while Nicolae Bălcescu tries a diplomatic approach.

During the peasant uprising of 1888, Alecu Dumitru, a socialist, hides from police in the Nada Florilor island, next to a fishing village.