Göran is to begin studying in Stockholm soon. He spends the summer on his uncle's farm, where he meets Kerstin. The two of them fall in love, which is disapproved of both by the village priest and by Göran's family. One summer night they bathe in a lake and then sleep with each other. Then they must separate. The following year they ride a motorbike together when a car hits them and Kerstin dies. "The film brushes the screen like a fresh, pure summer breeze," was the enthusiastic critique of the German magazine Deutsche Film-Illustrierte in the face of "poetically transfigured images of midsummer-night," in which the love scene – unusually revealing for the times and still legendary today – evolved as an absolute necessity "on account of the plot, the natural phenomenon." The film was awarded a Golden Bear by the Berlinale audience and shaped the image of Scandinavia for years to come. In Germany it is still famous today as the "scandalous film with the most daring love scenes of 1952".