Eigil Reimers

The attic of a city house is the home to a colony of artists. Among them is a writer, whose corpus is larger than her output. We also meet a hard-of-hearing poet who can still hear the grass growing. There's a painter, a sculptor and more. All are penniless - hoping that one day they will experience their breakthrough. "The Seventh Heaven", as the corridor is called, also houses two prominent residents, Fyrtårnet and Bivognen. They have set up a small diner and engage lively with the artist from the colony.

The world-distant and absent-minded professor Jacob Jensen lives exclusively for his science and his stamps. He has no idea what is going on around him, in his own home. In the 11 years since his wife died, his capable, wise and lovable housekeeper Karen Frederiksen has, with a loving hand, managed the home for him and his 3 children. The aspiring amateur boxer Oscar and the 2 daughters Else-Margrethe and Birthe. She has shared in the children's sorrows and joys and has often lent them money when they have had dry pocket pains. She has praised and scolded them at the right times - in short, she has been in their mother's place. Both the professor and the children take her for granted. They take her services, big and small, for granted, and do not quite understand what she really means to them.

Mona and Carl Johan are having a hard time. They are going to get married, but then Carl Johan is called up to report to the barracks on the wedding night. Carl Johan doesn't want to and goes to the barracks to tell them about it. Mona wants to meet Carl Johan and also leaves, just as Carl Johan is leaving the barracks again. Mona accidentally becomes a hussar and then the riding master's attendant. It is not easy being a woman in the army. After a series of complications, the truth comes out.

Taxi driver Peter Basse is a jovial and cheerful man who faithfully looks after his daughter at the wheel and steers his carriage through the streets of Copenhagen with unwavering composure. One day he drives for the stylish valet Johan, employed by the old Dowager Baroness von Hessen. The taxi driver is tasked with delivering an important letter to the Dowager Baroness's grandson. Along the way, Peter Basse learns that the Dowager Baroness may be going crazy. In any case, she has made the acquaintance of two spiritualists.

The story opens just before Christmas, when solitary, apathetic bank clerk Flemming Borck uncovers a plot to rob his bank. After doing a little rookie recon, Borck identifies the would-be bank robber as a faux shopping-mall Santa Claus, and counter-plots to steal the money himself and let Santa take the blame. This works out about as badly as you might imagine, and our bumbling protagonist spirals further and further away from the carefree, laconic lifestyle he had hoped to ensure for himself.

A picture of the life of the Danish people from the late 1820s to the introduction of the free constitution in 1849. A fictional character, Rasmus Nielsen, travels around the country, first as a traveling teacher, later in other positions, and through his experiences we are introduced to the conditions of various population groups. The central figure in the portrayal of historical figures is the politician Orla Lehmann.

One evening, two young people, the painter Peter Sommer and the sweet, young courtesan Vera Holm, get to know each other in a very dramatic way. He meets her outside the property where he has his studio, and when she pretends to have an errand there, he willingly lets her in. When Vera suddenly pulls a revolver and shoots a stranger, and Peter in the heat of the fight receives a stab wound, there is a great commotion in the property, and an explanation is demanded.

The two friends, Fy and Bi, come wandering along the country road as so many times before without a destination and - without food. Hunger torments them, and they stop with wide eyes at a bakery truck, whose back door is open and opens the view to sumptuous trays of pastries and mayor's bars. However, they get a long nose and wander on to an old castle, where they seek accommodation for the night. In the castle cellar they open a book - and immediately they are back in the exciting events and deadly battles of the 15th century. And again we are back in the castle cellar, where Fy now with a bang closes the dusty, old book, and the two set out on the country road again.