Mikael Edman leaves his life as a poor backpacker in Anundsjö and, together with his daughter Malin, walks up towards Vilhelmina. He leaves the rest of the family behind him in the cemetery in Anundsjö: his wife and the three youngest children died in the dysentery in the spring. They walk through the spring-green landscape up to the new building Mikael bought above Vilhelmina. He has decided to become his own master, he will create a life for himself and his daughter without poverty and humiliation.