As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.

One Monday morning, a thousand children leave the suburb of Farsta and go to Stockholm to occupy the Royal Castle. The children have formed a group called S.O.P.O.R. as a protest against the way adults treat them and have destroyed their future. They demand that the robots in the industry are replaced by humans to create job opportunities. They take the royal family as hostages.