At the Stora Morgonbladet newspaper office the daily work has started, at the same time the journalist Maggie Frisch has just noticed how late she is and what a great position in the paper her article from yesterday has received. She hopes to use the success of her article to lessen the anger of her boss when she gets to the office.

Synnöve lives with her parents at the farm Solbakken on a sunny hill. Thorbjörn, who lives at Granliden in the shadow of a big mountain, often looks wistfully up to Solbakken. As teenagers they meet and fall in love. Another boy, Knud Nordhaug, is also yearning for Synnöve.

Young Jörgen Steenfeld is the heir of it over the chimney-indebted estate Steensgaard and unable to clear up its finances. He is being looked after by his old friend, "Mästerkatten", ie the enterprising, charming but somewhat irreplaceable Karl Konstantin Kattrup, who has been relegated from the university. Kattrup, involved as a manager at Steensgaard. Steenfeld receives visits by county governor Markdanner and her daughter Rose. The Countess is planning a marriage between Rose and Jörgen, but Jörgen is secretly in love with the orphan Helga Anthon, called Pips. The conditions are further complicated by the appearance of Kattrup and Rose.

In 17th century Sweden, as is tradition, a magistrate's widow will take over her husband's job for a year after his death. This causes great difficulty when someone she cares for must be sentenced for the crime of murder.