Opera-obsessed Jan is not exactly a nice or even tolerable person. The cafeteria manager on a financially struggling ferry that runs between Copenhagen and Stockholm, Jan is bizarrely twitchy and ferociously obsessed with rules. When he finally goes home after hiding out in the opera house for the better part of every evening, he is berated by his wife, Anna. And things only get worse from there. Finally, his boss decides he can no longer put up with Jan’s antics and demands that he get help, sparking a chain of events that will change Jan’s life permanently.