In a working-class town in Sweden, the factory employees are participating in a sympathy strike with workers from a nearby town. Among the strikers are Harald Andersson (Roland Hedlund) and his family, who weather the strike amiably until a big foreign order motivates the factory owners to finally call in scabs. The workers arrange what they hope will be a peaceful march of protest, but as tempers flare the military reserves are called in and tragedy strikes the Andersson family.