Sixten Svensson is work-shy. He avoids employments and he doesn't want to work at home either. Because of this his family sinks into poverty, and his wife has to beg her parents for money and their neighbors for food. Their daughter Märta is well aware that baron Urse is highly interested in her. She dreams of getting married to the baron and to live a fashionable life with him, but his wife forms an obstacle to this. When the baron offers her an appointment as a housemaid, she declines the offer because of his wife. Outside the village shop some of the villagers are inspecting the raft which is used every summer when they cleanse the stream from too much vegetation. This is a yearly event, which turns into a ritual festivity of great importance for the village. To be chosen as one of the men on the raft is a great honor.
—Maths Jesperson {maths.jesperson1@comhem.se}