In nineteenth-century Denmark, two peasant brothers, Laust and Peter, are both in love with the same woman: Inge, the estate manager's daughter. When war with Prussia breaks out, the brothers' report for duty in the Danish army and are sent to the front along with thousands of their fellow soldiers. Their relationship with Inge helps Laust and Peter as they encounter the horrors of war, but eventually it creates a rift between them.

Set in a rural chalk-mining community during a cold winter, the film follows two brothers. The younger brother Emil distills moonshine made from stolen chemicals from the factory. Emil is an outsider, an oddball, who made a conscious choice for loneliness and is only accepted by the mining community due to his older brother Johan. Emil longs for passion, for being wanted and loved. When a fellow worker becomes sick, the moonshine and Emil are prime...