At age 12, Lasse is a tough guy and a bright one. His life is changed when his mother, pregnant at the time, abandons his beloved father. She takes Lasse with her to live with her new paramour, a dentist as authoritarian as Lasse's Elvis Presley-fan butcher dad was easy-going. The dentist has a daughter, too, and she is a jealous schemer. Lasse tries hard to conform, but can a tiger change its stripes?

12-year-old Martin finds the going tough. Manhood is approaching, but so far mostly as aches and pain. His mother's men friends are definitely nothing like the father he does not have. So some kind of male bonding is inevitable when he meets Funder, a juvenile droput on the run from the police. There is also girl-friend Rikke to consider. Who needs Martin the most? Coming of age isn't so easy.