The late 1930s. A young enemployed, unskilled worker walks through the streets of Copenhagen, sustaining himself partly on the dole and free soup-kitchen meals and partly on day-dreams. He spends time at a cemetry studying headstone inscriptions. Mild-mannered and of poetic bent, he understands little of an intellectual friend's advice and shies away from the love of a woman who shares her bed with him.

This is a film about the stuff dreams are made of, yet, there is nothing elevated in this concept, on the contrary. The characters around the bar Strudsen (the ostrich) are doing what ostriches do, hiding themselves from the threats of life and keeping their dreams to themselves. Scriptwriter Benny Andersen being a poet is rendering a loving portrait of a number of persons, who fail to try to make their dreams come true, possibly not being sufficiently dissatisfied with their life after all. The manager would like a bar of his own but dare not admit to it, the butcher would like to be an opera singer, the window cleaner (sorry, window polisher) is secretly in love with the bar lady, but dare not show it and the pianist willingly listens to all the different dreams being presented to him. This film was the best accomplished movie from Henning Carlsen since his debut with 'Sult'.

In 1963, forty-and-some-years old Martin (Erno Müller) arrives back in Copenhagen after several years in Africa. He has never really recovered from the traumatic experiences he made as a member of the resistance movement during the German occupation of Denmark, 1940-45. Unintended he gets in contact with a young girl who seems to be an archetype representative for the young post-war generation 1960. She is engaged in a protest movement trying to avoid both nuclear energy plants and atomic weapons on Danish soil. He falls in love with her, but the distance between their two generations is insurmountable. Rapid historical changes have raised a wall between the two of them and stands in the way for their desire and their attempts to understand one another. A reunion with old wartime comrades and the revival of an unbearable common mistake does not make it easier for Martin.

A group of women are workmates at a laundry. Rike is spreading a rumor about the manager Marta, a rumor that Marta is a lesbian and that she once tried to seduce Rike. This leads to an explosive situation at the workplace.