The end of the 19th century. A boat filled with Swedish emigrants involves the island of Bornholm. One of these are Lasse along with his son Pelle who go on to Denmark to get work. They find employment but are treated as the smallest form of life. Pelle starts to speak Danish but is harassed as a foreigner. But none of them desires to offer up their dream of finding a better life than the life that they abandon Sweden.