In 1850, farm-boy Larus finds wandering in his tiny village's wasteland a neglected orphan girl, Tinke (9), whose mother died in their rickety cabin on the heath. Larus tries to take her in, braving his brutish foster parents, to share his miserable stable dwelling, also with retard giant Hartad . The mayor searches for her ancestry, while the cabin and corpse are disposed of. It turns out her mother was the missing maverick daughter of a grumpy, rich grandfather, whose wife rapidly takes to the rebel girl, while her aunts and uncles ponder the foundling.