A drama about the manager Håkan Dahlin who has just been discharged from a clinic where he was treated for his alcoholism. In an outbreak of jealousy, Dahlin abuses his wife Inga and after that he is forcibly interned again. Inga is a nurse and she is now moving to a mountain village to work at a district clinic. During an emergency visit, she encounters her childhood sweetheart, the doctor Gunnar, and old feelings between them begin to flare up again.
Ulla and Gunnar meet and fall in love in Stockholm in the late 1930s. Early in their relationship Ulla discovers that she is pregnant but she decides to get an abortion because she doesn't want to pressure Gunnar into marrying her. The outbreak of the war puts a strain on their relationship when Gunnar gets called up for military service.