A story about the beautiful but confused young woman Helene, who, according to her mother, was born as a 'technical error'. Helene suspects that her father, who left his family before Helene was born, might be the once celebrated director of a dilapidated theater in Copenhagen. Assisted by a series of bizarre coincidences and by her mother's dog (a creature in whose shadow Helene has always lived), Helene manages to get closer to her father.

To the mentally ill Kriss, the world is divided up into 'good and evil', just like in the old B&W melodrama, 'Pure Hearts', which Kriss and his fellow patient, Willy, spend their days repeatedly watching at the psychiatric ward. To Kriss this film is the bible. One day after a serious conflict with one of the hospital's other patients their viewing rights are retracted. Kriss is deeply frustrated by this, until he realises that Linda, the young girl in the film, actually exists in the shape of the film's star, the actress Ulla Vilstrup. Setting fire to the hospital, Kriss and Willy escape into the night, determined to find her, because life is what you make of it.