Arne has been severely traumatized ever since his debt-ridden father poisoned himself and his family, and the boy only survived the collective suicide by accident. At first he lives with his grandmother, but when she has to move into an old people's home, Arne is taken in by Harald, an old friend of his father's. The mariner lives in the harbour with his wife Elsa and his children Hans, Wiebke and Lars, and cares deeply for Arne. But the boy's trust is so severely damaged that he increasingly isolates himself. He only feels attracted to the rebellious Wiebke, much to her regret. She would rather hang out with friends in an abandoned house, and dreams of running away. Things seem a bit upbeat when the adolescents refloat an old jolly-boat. The mutual work fuses them together, but then things go horribly wrong at the boat launch and as a punishment, Arne must participate in a theft.