Part one of an ambitious screen adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf's book Jerusalem.

Synnöve lives with her parents at the farm Solbakken on a sunny hill. Thorbjörn, who lives at Granliden in the shadow of a big mountain, often looks wistfully up to Solbakken. As teenagers they meet and fall in love. Another boy, Knud Nordhaug, is also yearning for Synnöve.

Åke Hjelm and Wilhelm Holt run a business together. Hjelm is honest and fair, but Holt takes every opportunity to gain some easy money – legal or not.