The film is an uncompromising account of the life of two alienated teenagers, Kenneth "Kenta" Gustafsson (1948–2003) and Gustav "Stoffe" Svensson (1950–1978).

The film, like its successor Ett anständigt liv (1979; A Respectable Life) takes a close but non-moralizing look at the joys and growing pains of mod and "junkie" street culture in Stockholm at the time.

The mood is high, but they decide they can't stay in Hedemora—the contrast from the big city of Stockholm is too great.

In Stockholm, there is Peter, who earns 400 kronor a day by selling drugs, and Lunkan, who got hepatitis from an infected hypodermic syringe.

Kenta finds an empty stairwell and lays himself down, opens up a beer and starts reading a cartoon magazine.

In the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, Carl Henry Svenstedt said: "A more conventional critique would seem cynical, about a problem whose solution we all have responsibility for.

[3] Movie Facts and Feats: A Guinness Record Book refers to this film as the first to depict unsimulated sexual intercourse.