Two boys in the Fairytale Forest steal a broom from a maintenance vehicle. They run to the Fairytale Museum where they find a book with the story of Hugo. As soon as they start reading, the film begins. We see the young Hugo van den Loonsche Duynen in 1796. He robs a rich man. The oldest of the Bokkerijders chases him and asks if he really wants to learn the trade. After a few years, Hugo becomes one of the best and most notorious of the Bokkerijders. Then a successor must be found for the oldest. The battle is between Hugo and another Bokkerijder, Lodewijck, and is settled in Villa Volta in Hugo's favor. When he grabs the silver from the Villa, a ghost appears and curses him. He is banished to his own house and will only find peace when someone with a clear conscience enters his home.
The dynamic PR-agent Hannah is starting up her dream-job in the Hochstedt Company producing toys and soon falls in love with her firm's junior executive director, Wolfgang.
Set on May 18, 1993—the day on which Denmark voted to join the European Union, just a few months after they'd voted not to do so—the film follows eight or so disparate Danes (an escaped mental patient, a newly-famous singer, a business executive, and their assorted families and cohorts) as they unwittingly alter one another's lives, for better and for worse.
Military doctor Kwiatkowski, serving in a barracks hospital on the Western Territories, is rewarded with a week’s leave after successfully operating on Colonel Kiziora of the UB.