In search of a new lifestyle, Johannes and his wife Pernille leave the city and move with their two children to Johannes’ childhood town in the country. When Johannes’ drunken brother Lars accidently runs over Anna, a local, and plants false evidence pointing at the emigrant Alain, Johannes stands up to defend Alain. But it comes with a price.

Mette has a childhood like so many other children. She plays, draws, watches television and is with her mother and father. But underneath the surface, the family's pillow creaks when Mette's father has a gloomy side. Recently, his assault on the mother has begun to intensify and, as her mother is in hospital after a serious injury, and later in the local shelter, Mette faces some major changes in her life.