The history of Danish country church architecture is told by showing scenes of how the church was used by the congregation, beginning with the celebration of mass in a small and simple wooden church 800 years ago, and ending with the congregation singing in a village church of to-day. The development and the growth of the pattern of church architecture is shown. Dreyer in this film shows a series of churches from different periods with churchgoers in period clothing. Each period is separated by a shot of a church bell double-exposed on the sky. Although the film has a vibrant and instructive way of communicating the different epochs and styles to students, it does not exhibit the artistic quality that usually distinguishes a Dreyer film, except perhaps in some of the costumes, which were originally made for Day of Wrath. The board of Dansk Kulturfilm in autumn 1945 decided that their planned church film would exclusively be about village churches. Dreyer would rework the script that was written by editor and folk high-school principal Bernhard Jensen, aided by a committee of experts consisting of architect H. Lønborg-Jensen and Victor Hermansen, curator at the National Museum of Denmark. Dreyer had a first draft ready in mid-March, entitled Kirken er et gammelt Hus (The Church Is an Old House), which was distributed to the members of the committee for their comments. In the last half of July, Dreyer and Victor Hermansen travelled the country to look at suitable churches. They researched the details and at Dreyer’s request a number of technical changes were made to the churches, including the removal of porcelain holders for electrical wiring in Tveje Merløse Church. On 4 July, Dreyer went in advance to Ringkøbing. Shooting was set to start a few days later with the arrival of the director of photography, Preben Frank, who had fallen off a ladder and broken his leg, Fortunately, he was ready to cautiously start working again within a few days, with his leg in a cast. Otherwise, the production went without a glitch. Everywhere, Dreyer said, they were well received at the vicarages and they had no problem getting enough extras. On 1 august, they returned to Copenhagen with almost all their footage in the can. They only needed to film the church in Skelby, where the weather had been against them, plus a Swedish wooden church in Hedared. The economy was distressed so soon after the war, especially when it came to foreign currency, but there were no real wooden churches left in Denmark and building an interior set in the studio would be too expensive. The finished film was shown for the first time on 24 September 1947 to a small, closed circle, which included the Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs. In December 1947, as was Dansk Kulturfilm’s standard practice, the film was presented to the press, politicians and others on a programme with four other short films.
温良贤淑的富家小姐楚云鹤，身不由己嫁入深宅大院，操持家业赈济百姓，一度和土匪武装势同水火，却阴差阳错成了土匪首领。爱过她的家院侍卫百子离她而去，加入革命队伍，成长为解放军的侦查排长，领命剿匪。土匪在解放军面前溃不成军，楚云鹤屡屡逃脱之后，终于被百子亲手抓获。她的传奇故事惊动了党中央，毛主席亲自批示枪下留人。为报共产党的不杀之恩，楚云鹤转而配合解放军剿匪，战斗中他们经历了生死考验。
故事发生在非洲附近的大海上，主人公冷锋遭遇人生滑铁卢，被“开除军籍”，本想漂泊一生的他，正当他打算这么做的时候，一场突如其来的意外打破了他的计划，突然被卷入了一场非洲国家叛乱，本可以安全撤离，却因无法忘记曾经为军人的使命，孤身犯险冲回沦陷区，带领身陷屠杀中的同胞和难民，展开生死逃亡。随着斗争的持续，体内的狼性逐渐复苏，最终孤身闯入战乱区域，为同胞而战斗。