Combining the exultant sweep of epic period drama with the subtle intimacy of biography in a social perspective, this is a tale of materially impoverished childhood, struggling early manhood and an unrequited first love turned into good musical fortune for Carl Nielsen, one of the great composers of the 20th century. Based on the composer's autobiography, the film itself is designed to soar like a symphony.

A middle-aged woman who lives alone in her childhood home has become such a daydreamer that the line between fantasy and reality has become blurred. Her thoughts revolve around the war years, when her father was a Nazi and she married the wrong man, even though a sympathetic German soldier loved her. When a young man comes to read the electricity meter, she cannot distinguish between past and present, and the clash between dream and reality becomes painful.