Melodrama taking place in West Jutland in 1912 among the harsh railway workers, the so-called "brushes". A team of brushes is housed at the place of a drunken miller (Aksel Erhardtsen). The team's chairman, "handsome" Thorvald (Carsten Bang), falls in love with the miller's young wife (Stina Ekblad), who dreams of a better life.