Mother (Sonja Richter) is seriously ill, and the brothers Alma (Harald Kaiser Hermann) and Eric (Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt) are left unattended and can only be sent to a boarding school run by the principal Heck (Lars Mikkelsen). Heck is a man who believes in violence. He firmly believes that only through force can the children in the school be truly convinced and can they be guided on the right path. The two brothers suffered in this cage called school but actually a prison. The promise that their mother would come to pick them up at Christmas became the only motivation for their survival. However, the two waited and waited, but what they waited for was the news of their mother's death. Lillian (Sofie Gråbøl) is the new literature teacher in the school. She is keenly aware of the inhumane atrocities taking place in this school, but she can do nothing about it.