In a Transylvanian village, a pastor tries to convert a local peasant to his religion, for personal interests.

Paul Vasiliu, a geologist, returns to his native village. Excavating for irrigation works gives him the opportunity to discover some valuable minerals. Now he has to convince the villagers to postpone theirs lifelong dream of having irrigations in their fields to examine if the mineral deposits are economically viable. A common communist propaganda item of those times.

A local Romanian chieftain in 16th century Transylvania discovers a great treasure of Decebalus. He decides to send it for safekeeping in Moldavia, but he has to evade the Transylvanian prince and the king of Hungary, who get wind of it and want it for themselves.

After he fails to be accepted in college, Vali is questioned by police for participating in various thefts. He needs an alibi and he thinks the best one would be his father in Bucharest. To get there, he steals a motorcycle. In Bucharest he meets store clerk Anișoara, and he invites her to a seaside escapade. Their one day of love and future optimism is ended abruptly by a tragic motorcycle accident.

In 1950 a Western spy is clandestinely parachuted into Communist Romania to retrieve secret WW2 codes and agent lists and also to assist a group of anti-Communist guerrillas escape but the Communist police is setting a trap.

A police officer is investigating the disappearance of a colleague's young boy. His key seems to be the "dark skinned" friend of the boy about whom nobody cares, including the police.

Savu and Panait, two drivers working for a firm of construction and assembly must ensure the movement of a giant machine. Along the way, she meets Miriam, a young gone to meet his fiance even transport your destination. Identity documents and stolen his train ticket. The two drivers decide to give her journey. After a night in a motel, drivers have an argument that is not foreign to the presence of Mary. For their silence, Savu decides to disembark. Not long after, overcome by remorse, turn back looking for her and thus reach his village which had left years ago. Here, Maria discovers drama of the human soul, wounded by an unhappy marriage. Arriving at your destination, are the husband of Mary is already married two months. Two men and a woman on the road to return, beyond sadness after a ravishing experience.

This is a thriller based on a theatre play by Horia Lovinescu - „Omul care şi-a pierdut omenia” (The Man Who Lost His Humanity)

An eclectic film, in which suspense and cynicism sometimes meet the grotesque, "Back and forth" reminds, in many ways, the future masterpiece, "Cruise" (1981), directed by Mircea Daneliuc. Placed on the water's edge, where several characters sit with their bellies in the sun and when they talk about what they want and what they don't want, when they keep quiet, "Back and forth" is the graduation film of one of the legendary filmmakers of national cinema.