The action takes place in Sweden from 1958 to 1959. Twelve-year-old Ingemar gets into all sorts of trouble and adventures with his beloved dog. He and his older brother Erik become too much to handle for their single mother; Ingemar does not know that his mother is in fact terminally ill. In order for their mom to get the rest and recovery she needs, the boys are split up and sent to live with relatives. Ingemar ends up with his maternal uncle Gunnar and his wife Ulla in a small rural town in
Småland. Ingemar is not allowed to bring his dog along with him, despite his protestations, and the dog is placed in a kennel. During Ingemar’s stay, he bonds with Gunnar over
Povel Ramel's recording of "
Far, jag kan inte få upp min kokosnöt". In the town he encounters a variety of characters. Saga, an assertive
tomboy his own age, likes him, and shows it by beating him in a boxing match. Among the more eccentric residents is Fransson, a man who continually fixes the roof of his house, and Mr. Arvidsson, an old man living downstairs who gets Ingemar to read to him from a lingerie catalog. Later, Ingemar is reunited with his family, but his mother's health soon takes a turn for the worse and she is hospitalized. He and his brother go to stay with their uncle Sandberg in the city, but his wife thinks the boy is mentally disturbed. After his mother dies, Ingemar is sent back to Småland. Mr. Arvidsson has died in the interim; Gunnar and Ulla now share the house with a large Greek family. Gunnar welcomes him and consoles him as best he can, but the house is so crowded, he has Ingemar live with Mrs. Arvidsson in another house. Ingemar remains hopeful about being reunited with his dog and continues to ask his uncle if the dog can come stay with him. Meanwhile, Ingemar becomes the object of contention between Saga and another girl. When they start fighting over him, he grabs onto Saga's leg and starts
barking like a dog. She becomes upset by his strange behavior and gets him into the boxing ring. During the bout, out of spite, Saga tells Ingemar that his dog (which he had thought was in a kennel) was actually euthanized. This, along with his mother's death, is too much for him and he locks himself inside Gunnar's one-room "
summer house" in the backyard. While secluded here, Ingemar reflects on the death of his mother, the loss of his dog and a changing world. Ingemar uses the experiences of others and of his own personal loss to reconcile a life which is sometimes tough. Throughout the film, Ingemar tells himself over and over that it could have been worse, reciting several examples, such as a man who took a shortcut onto the field during a track meet and was killed by a javelin and the story of the dog
Laika several times, the first creature sent into orbit by the Russians (without any way to get her back down). The film ends with the radio broadcast of a
famous heavyweight championship boxing match, between Swede
Ingemar Johansson and American
Floyd Patterson. When Johansson wins, the whole town erupts with joy, but the now-reconciled Ingemar and Saga are fast asleep together on a couch, holding each other. ==Cast==