Gustav Runsten

Based on a Finnish poem, The Kingdom of Rye is a gorgeous romantic drama set in rural northern Sweden during the harvest. It features a young couple whose love affair is fraught with Hardy-esque complications and an unhappily married wife of the landowner.

Kalle Jeppson is the joyful owner of a rural inn, "Spången" (The Footbridge). His only problems are all the bylaws that makes it difficult to have a quiet drink and the shrew of his wife who is always nagging on him. Kalle is afraid to tell her that Karin the maid is really his daughter from the days before their marriage.

In order to avoid ending up at the poorhouse, five orphaned children tries to make the best of their lives.

The vessel pilot Alfred and fisherman Sven are both in love with Sonja, the most beautiful girl on the island they live on. Sven and Alfred become quarrel when Alfred one evening finds Sven with Sonja. The fight ends when Sven leaves the island. He freaked out completely when he hit Alfred with a bottle over the head. Now rumor has that Sonja is pregnant.

The farmer Emanuel’s mother Ingrid wants him to marry his cousin Maja Sofia.