In a small Zealand village, where everything seems to be idyllic, lives the seamstress Bolette Jensen, a bold woman who has had her share of bitter experiences and is now feared for her sharp tongue. Bolette tends to speak her mind without mincing words, and since the truth is, as is well known, unheard of, she is not particularly liked by the parish authorities, the most prominent of whom is the parish council chairman Peter Enevoldsen. Bolette is given a serious task when the young, beautiful Sofie is about to have a baby, and Bolette immediately takes care of the unhappy girl and promises that she will probably walk up the aisle with her Karl.

On the deck of the Aalborg boat, the young girl Elly stands and stares at Copenhagen's towers and roofs, shining in the red glow of the afternoon sun. Elly has been lucky, she thinks: a maid in a boarding house in Nansensgade, her own room and a good salary. However, Elly is quickly disappointed. The boarding house is dirty, and after advances from one of the boarders, she packs her suitcase. She meets Agnes, a girl from home. Agnes takes Elly under her wing and gets her a place in a hotel and offers her half of her attic room. Elly feels safe with Agnes, but then one day a young man crosses her path.

There is great confusion in the director's home. The confusion overwhelms the couple when the young housekeeper turns out to be the director's daughter and the older one her mother. It can only go wrong, and it gives reason to send an excited and upset Olga Svendsen onto the field.

Marie Jantzen is in her forties and, thanks to hard work and common sense, the owner of a successful dry cleaning business. Although she is successful and has money in the bank, she feels cheated by life, as she has neither a husband nor children. In an attempt to make amends, she responds to a marriage advertisement and comes into contact with the charming Georg Tingbo, who unfortunately turns out to have a few skeletons in his closet.

At the dinner for their school's 100th anniversary, three old schoolmates meet. All three have done well in life, for Eyvind is now a respected judge, Herluf the stern director of a glassworks and Ove the owner of a printing house. In the time after the dinner, the coincidences of the three men's lives will become entangled in a way none of them could have foreseen. Fortunately, they still have their old principal in the background to pull the strings.

Jeppe Aakjær's heroic poem about Jens Langkniv becomes something more than the story of a robber in a small parish in Jutland.