This Icelandic tale, loosely based on the real-life experiences of director Fridrik Fridriksson tells the saga of a boyhood spent in Iceland in the 1960s.

Ingaló is helping her father on his small fishing boat, but he's an obstinate character and relations between them are tense. After a dance in the village which ends in a fight between the local people and crew of Matthildur ÍS 167, a visiting fishing boat, Ingaló and her younger brother leave home. Ingaló stays briefly in Reykjavík and has a short affair with Vilhjálmur, a man in his thirties. Sveinn has found a job on Matthildur and Ingaló is taken on as a cook. The fishing is poor and when the vessel breaks down it heads for home port, where the crew stays in derelict living quarters for seasonal workers. Ingaló finds out that Matthildur's owner and big wheel in town is none other than Vilhjálmur.

Jónas, working in peace and quiet in an isolated summerhouse, hires a young girl, Sandra, to cook for and look after him, and complete an ideal situation for an Icelandic writer on the brink of an international breakthrough. The plan, however, does not turn out the way Jónas intended.