Christer Berg dies in a car crash and is found with a teddy bear named "Bamse". His son, also named Christer finds out that Bamse belongs to his father's lover Barbro Persson. He tries to humiliate her, introducing her to his mother as his new fiancée. But he ends up falling in love with her, and she sees in him the memories of her dead lover. When she finds herself pregnant, they have to decide about their love affair.

In the midst of a civil war, a pair of former violinists in a tempestuous marriage oversee a farm on a rural island. In spite of their best efforts to escape their homeland, the war impinges on every aspect of their lives.