The eponymous children (Pernilla Allwin and Bertil Guve) live an happy upper-middle class life with their theatre-manager father "Oskar" (Allan Edwall) and mother "Emilie" (Ewa Fröling) and are looking forward to Christmas. Parties ensue and a good time is had by all until the father is suddenly taken ill. His death follows swiftly and their mother is soon being wooed by the rather puritanical bishop "Vergerus" (Jan Malmsjö) who has a rather different, more disciplinarian, attitude to bringing up the children. When they marry, the life of "Alexander", especially, becomes nigh on intolerable. "E... läs resten.