Johan, a newspaper correspondent, his wife Lotta and their two children, 12-year-old, tomboyish Alice and her little brother Pontus, live a comfortable middle-class life. That life, however, gets shattered when Johan has an affair with a neighbour, single mother Anna.
Johan would like to keep the affair quiet, to avoid the messiness and to spare the children, but both Anna and Lotta force him to choose. When Lotta's last, desperate effort to win him back fails, she forces the issue and Johan moves out. For their children, however, the split is disastrous. Not only for Alice and Pontus but for Anna's 12-year-old son Patrick who is still dreaming of his own father's return.
