Margrethe have served fish casserole in her local diner for years. One day the lovely Julia unexpectedly opens a Sushi Bar next door to the diner, and Margrethe takes up the fight against this strange new way of eating fish.

Helga Joner's daughter Ida leaves home bound for the local shop riding a yellow bicycle and wearing a red cycle helmet. Helga is shown to be an over-anxious mother who worries excessively about her daughter. She even resorts to calculating the approximate time Ida will take to reach the shop. As night starts to fall, and Ida doesn't return, Helga becomes worried about her daughter, going so far as to phone the shop to see if Ida is there, but she is told that Ida never arrived. Helga and her sister Ruth search for Ida but to no avail. Finally they call the police.

Three years have passed since Elling moved to town together with Kjell Bjarne, his roommate from the institution at Brøynes. Elling now lives on his own in the apartment. Kjell Bjarne has moved up one floor, to Reidun and her little daughter Mojo. Elling feels like an outsider, and he isolates himself more and more. He observes humankind with astonishment, and wonders at how everyone else seems to be adjusting so well. Finally, Kjell Bjarne takes care of the situation. Elling protests, but he is still pretty happy as he is transformed into a new man, clean, fully rested and well dressed. Deep inside, he also knows what's lacking, and one evening he finally finds the woman he knows is able to fill the void in his life. He's willing to do anything to win her trust and conquer her love. But when he is invited home to his new girlfriend for dinner, a few objections appear to Elling, and the story doesn't end quite the way he had thought it would.

A movie inspired by eight Norwegian political parties, written by six writers and directed by nine directors: a man gets a nasty surprise skinny dipping, a cow eats a cell phone, a lesbian couple loses a child, a blind girl sells dubious lottery tickets, a boy falls in love, a man picks up a hitchhiker, three girls get help from a man in pajamas, and nine old men find a young girl stuck in a swamp.

40-year-old Elling, sensitive, would-be poet, is sent to live in a state institution when his mother, who has sheltered him his entire life, dies. There he meets Kjell Bjarne, a gentle giant and female-obsessed virgin, also in his 40s.