The Swedish 19th century engineer Salomon August Andrée sets out to become the first man on the north pole. His idea is to launch a polar expedition using a hydrogen balloon, together with two friends. The balloon, "The Eagle", takes off from Svalbard in 1897, but the three men are never heard from again.
In a dilapidated little apartment in Vesterbro, Mrs. Knudsen lives with her incompetent and petty criminal son Arnold. Arnold's friend Benny also hangs out in the apartment at all hours, even though there is tension between the two companions. When a pretty girl accidentally rings the doorbell and ends up moving in, the battle between the two rivals breaks out into the open, and there is little room left for old Mrs. Knudsen.
A woman, Ilse Brehmer, finds the body of a dead man, a journalist. He has been murdered, and later when the body turns up in the harbor, the woman denies everything, even though witnesses has seen her nearby the crime scene. She simply can’t remember anything, but the detective on the case, Mørck, knows how to smell a lie and soon start to unravel this bloody mess.
