After Frank The Fixer Tagliano testifies against his Mafia boss in New York, he enters the Witness Protection Program and makes an unusual demand: he wants to be set up with a new life in the Norwegian small town of Lillehammer or as he calls it, Lilyhammer.

The annual winter fisheries are about to start, but the great catch never seems to come. It turns out that large industrial trawlers have emptied the ocean of fish, and the ordinary little fishing boats will have a hard time surviving. Elias gathers all his friends in order to save the future of his tiny coastal community.