Funfair worker Valdemar is unknowingly the illegitimate son of a rich landowner, colonel Von Brede. The colonel knows and employs Valdemar as his stable master. The colonel has a young and beautiful ward, Eva, but will she and Valdemar fall in love with each other?

A film adaptation of Selma Lagerlöf's classic book about Nils Holgersson, who is a real rascal. As punishment for his mischief, a house elf shrinks him to his size. The farm animals are out for revenge and so Nils must escape on the back of a goose from Skåne in the south to Lapland in the north. During his flight over Sweden, Nils gets to take part in many adventures.