Crisis 1946

From a quiet Swedish village, the 18-year-old Nelly begins to realize how her beauty stirs attention among the men around her, even as she lives with her devoted foster mother, Ingeborg, who runs a humble rooming house and teaches piano to the village youth, having sacrificed much for her foster daughter. With Ingeborg’s health faltering, Nelly’s biological mother, Jenny, returns in a striking hat, painted nails, and a freer air, intent on reclaiming her long-abandoned daughter and drawing her toward the tempting life of the city.

Jenny’s plan centers on meeting Nelly at a charity ball, where a dapper, soon-to-be-infamous acquaintance named Jack brings a new energy to the evening. Nelly’s admirer, Ulf, who rents a room from Ingeborg, watches the event unfold with mixed emotions. The ball devolves into chaos thanks to Jack’s exuberant antics, and the evening culminates in a charged lakeside kiss between Nelly and Jack. When Ulf discovers them, he confronts Jack and shames him, tossing him off a dock into the dark water.

Torn between her beloved Mutti-like guardian and the lure of urban life, Nelly decides to leave with Jenny and Jack for the city. In the metropolis, she works at her mother’s beauty salon, where she absorbs new airs of sophistication and makes friends in a world far from the village’s quiet rhythms. Ingeborg and Ulf grieve the split, yet they tell themselves to wait and allow Nelly to experience life to its fullest.

In the city, Jack spins a dangerous tale to seduce Nelly—claiming that he once murdered his pregnant wife and child while they slept by turning on the gas, an accusation he uses to test her trust. Nelly’s heart softens, and she agrees to accompany him to the police station, but the mood shifts as they retreat to a private moment and fall into each other’s arms. Jenny catches them in bed, and Jack storms out, later shooting himself off-screen. The revelation leaves Nelly shocked and disillusioned with city life, prompting a return to her hometown.

Back in the village, Ingeborg and Ulf receive her with a mix of sorrow and relief, and the film closes on a note of restored calm. Yet the story has sown a new intimacies beneath the surface: a quiet, growing bond between Nelly and Ulf, hinting at a future beyond the village’s former routines. The rhythm of life settles again, and the small town regains its old slow pace, now subtly touched by the experience that reshaped one young woman’s view of love, desire, and the world beyond.