Sys Jondahl

In a small two-room apartment in a backyard in Vesterbro, Copenhagen, 14-year-old Ester lives with her father, mother, and older brother Carl. It is a typical working-class neighborhood of the time, and the apartment lacks any modern conveniences. Coal must be fetched from a dark basement where homeless people have sought shelter and lodging for the night. Ester is a dreamer. She wants to be a writer and secretly writes poetry. She often loses track of time and place when her thoughts wander.

Fed up with his quarreling middle class parents, thirteen-year-old Jonas runs away from home. He seeks his freedom in the woods, where he befriends a girl his own age and a drunken ex-pilot, who offers him some warmth and understanding.

A crime melodrama set in the world of horse racing. A trainer is wrongfully accused of doping a horse and loses his license. When he begins to investigate the matter himself, a series of shady dealings are uncovered.