Aase lives together with her old grandfather above the city, and she dreams of going away. Kaare is in love with her, but her dreams seem to come between them.
The poor but skilled woodcutter Simen is conned by the rich Pikajord. Simen's answer is to reenact his own death through disappearance, and come back as a ghost. But then his attractive wife looks like a widow.
On a farm in east-Norway lives Jonas Værn. He befriends a traveling finn Ahti who tells about his lost love and the man that took it from him. Ahti is later accused of murdering that fellow traveler....
Widowed Gunhild has two daughters, and one of them, Ragnhild has fallen in love with poor boy Asmund, to her mother's dislike.
