The boy Topper is bored. He finds a pencil that proves to have magical powers. Draw a rhino, and right away, you have a real rhino for a companion. A little heavy perhaps, when you live on the second floor. No matter, it's a modern fairy-tale of the baroque, and everything goes. Based on kiddie entertainment by Ole Lund Kirkegaard, but as was the case with the book, the fun is to be enjoyed by one and all.
In the square of an unnamed Danish town, we follow a number of people as they go about their daily business, big and small: The police officer tries to find out whether the Christmas tree seller has a "permit" to sell Christmas trees, the bicycle repairman invents a new kind of bicycle, the baker's assistant and the chimney sweep are in love, and the barber is working on a rug made of hair. Meanwhile, the Christmas tree seller sits carving small wooden figures and talking to everyone who passes by. The dramatic main story is that a modern entrepreneur wants to tear down all the old buildings in the square and replace them with a modern parking lot. Each section ends with the characters gathering around Ella's hot dog stand and singing along with the courtyard musicians.
Christian is a nice man climbing the career ladder. His brother Mikael, on the other hand, is a petty criminal who hustles his way through life as best he can. When Mikael dies, Christian feels responsible and, in order to get to know his deceased brother better, he seeks out the underworld Mikael belonged to. He should never have done that.
