In the early '60s, 3 Danish classmates join a "den"/tree house. Steen likes his pet fish Zappa because it eats the weaker fish. Bjørn attracts girls and Mulle is a talkative, strong boy. Steen gets them into burglary and later escalates.
Denmark, 1963: Teenagers Bjørn and Erik are into girls and being in a band helps Bjørn meet Anna. Erik likes Kirsten but she likes Bjørn. Having a mentally ill mom at home also ruins Erik's chances. Anna's pregnancy changes everything.
Swedish composer/conductor Martin and concertmaster Barbara fall in love. After their divorces, they're happily married. While composing an opera, Martin is diagnosed with Alzheimer's. It slowly changes him.
When patients' rights lawyer Colette Hughes goes to meet her new client, Eleanor Riese, a patient in the psychiatric unit of a San Francisco hospital, she has no idea that besides taking on an uphill legal battle to improve treatment for mental patients in hospitals, she is meeting a woman who will make it her mission to transform Colette's workaholic life.