Jens Christian er en strømlinet karrieredreng og nyudnævnt formand for Flygtningenævnet. Arbejdet er livets omdrejningspunkt og alt er godt, indtil en bortadopteret søn melder sin ankomst, og en usædvanlig vanskelig asylsag lander på skrivebordet. Pludselig er det ikke rigtige valg ikke soleklart for Jens Christian, der står splittet mellem forpligtelser og følelser.

Kaj is a stubborn man with a great deal of pride. The former chef lives in a council flat. He has wasted his life and is now on a council job training scheme for the long-term unemployed, where he refuses to let the foreman of the activation project boss him about. When Kaj's daughter, with whom he has not been in touch for nineteen years, moves into the same council estate on the run from her violent husband, a change comes over Kaj. His initial instinct is to avoid her, but by chance he ends up helping to look after Jonas, her six-year-old son. For the first time for years Kaj need not survive on his own devices. Now he has responsibilities and a family of his own.

Gunman Flame and his partner Citron assassinate Nazi collaborators for the Danish resistance. Assigned targets by their Allies-connected leader, Aksel Winther, they relish the opportunity to begin targeting the Nazis themselves. When they begin to doubt the validity of their assignments, their morally complicated task becomes even more labyrinthine.