Young Simon lives in a happy working class family in rural Sweden. He is intellectually gifted, and talks his parents into enrolling him into a prestigious school. There he makes friends with a rich “city” boy Isak. His father Ruben is a Jew who escaped to Sweden from Nazi persecution, but his family suffers the effects of anti-Semitism in the new country as well. Fascinated by Ruben’s books, art and music, Simon wants to find out more about his own family background.