No início da manhã de 09 de abril de 1940 o exército dinamarquês é alertado. Os alemães atravessaram a fronteira, a Dinamarca está em guerra contra o exército mais poderoso da Europa.
Nine young actors leave behind their daily lives in Berlin and travel to the country to audition for a summer theatre production to be performed in the ruins of an old church. A once-renowned Swiss director is using this week of rehearsals to find the lead for this production of “Hamlet”. The director is staying privately at the home of an old woman, but the actors are being put up at a run-down hotel with very thin walls.
Two family owners of important horse stables living faced by old rivalries. When one of them asks the help of a doctor of horses to treat the disorder one of the most outstanding equine, the conflict passes into the field of the personal.