The young kitchen maid Liv and the German officer Franz meet in the military camp where Liv works. They develop a friendship and decides to flee to Sweden.
We meet the young violinist Øyvind Dahl at a time when everything has weighed him down and he is completely desperate for alcohol. He has left his wife and children and has teamed up with emaciated artists and suspicious individuals, and obtains his daily liquor by mortgaging his last possessions, even the wedding ring, and by pitifully barring money.
The young wife of an upper-class academic disappears while her husband is on holiday. In his search for her, the husband learns that there was much he did not know both about her past and about their relationship.