Ditte is born out of wedlock and lives as a young girl with her old beloved grandmother. As an illegitimate child she is teased in school and more than anything in the world she wants a father. When steady - utterly reliable - herring dealer Lars Petter shows up and tells her that he is marrying Ditte's mother, the little girl is very happy. Now Ditte must take care of three new sisters and brothers but gets nothing but complaints from her ungrateful, selfish mother. But the little girl finds consolation and support in both her sisters and brothers and Lars Petter.

Per Brask is a fisherman's son, a lively 16-year-old boy, still too young to go out to sea, even though, like other boys on the west coast, he has to help out with the daily work. He is mostly preoccupied with playing, while dreaming of getting his own boat. The boys from the dunes are in a constant battle with the fjord boys, or land crabs – usually just called crabs – who are the boys from the village by the fjord or from the farms further inland.

1948 Danish film directed by Astrid Henning-Jensen and Bjarne Henning-Jensen