Albert and Herbert Hansen love each other, in the way that fathers and sons usually do. They argue and bicker, but they don't take it too seriously. If it weren't for one particular thing, they could have continued indefinitely as companions and friends. But in the distance, wedding bells are ringing.

Orphaned girl Toya is attending winter vacation with her uncle and aunt. Her friend Trygve is staying at the same mountain hotel. But on a trip in the mountain, a storm surprises them, and a search party is sent out.

Eight young people decide to detach themselves from all moral prejudices in their love life. They travel to an idyllic island in the archipelago. A paradise is founded, based on a thesis that the great love is no more. Eroticism is their choice. The friends is strongly influenced by the ideas of Sigmund Freud.

Øjvind, a smallholder's boy, is a close friend with Marit, a farmer's girl, throughout their entire childhood. As an adolescent he one day recognizes that she has become a maiden, and that he has fallen in love with her. When he sees Marit dancing with Jon Halten, a farmer's son, he gets sad, and notices that when you start loving someone, you are not cheerful any more. He senses the social distance between himself and Marit, and tries to compensate this by becoming the best pupil in the village. Øjvind wants to study at an agricultural college, and the old schoolmaster helps him to arrange this. When he some years later returns to the village as an agronomist, he and Marit resume their romance. Because of their different social status Marit's grandfather, Ola Nordistua, tries to stop the liaison. With new agricultural methods Øjvind helps his father to get better harvests. At the same time the old Ola Nordistua sees his farm going downhill as no one really cares for it.

A little girl named Toya comes to Norway as a refugee and gets adopted by a family in Stavanger. A misunderstanding makes Toya suspected of stealing from her new family. Toya runs away from home.

An orphan, Josefa, runs away from her threatening uncle with whom she is living, and stows away on traveller Fændrik's boat. She is no better off with him, however, as he forces himself on her and makes her steal and beg for a living. Meanwhile Fændrik's sister, who has been left penniless on shore by her deceitful brother, joins forces with Josefa's fiancé, Oscar, in a search for the missing pair.

The movie begins with a disenchanted poet who, having had his fill of the world, decides to hide out in a large department store. There are many floors, dusty nooks and crannies, and forgotten storerooms where he can secret himself. He believes he has found the peace and serenity he seeks--away from humankind--in order to write his poetry. To his initial horror, he finds he is not alone. There are Others who have also sought refuge in the dark places of the department store. He quickly finds himself at the mercy of this clandestine social underclass, for none may leave and risk exposing those who have spent years in the store. What quickly evolves is a chilling tale involving the poet and a young woman who had lost her way in the store while a mere child, and who has since spent her entire life as the downtrodden handmaid to the evil matriarch who rules her clan with an iron fist.