This is a film about how an ordinary man, a restaurateur in a small Danish town and owner of Café Håbet, has his happiness shattered one morning. Restaurateur Christian Christiansen has just prepared for his big trip to visit his only son, who wants to build a house, and now he has to help with a loan, which he can afford. He has saved every penny, and now his son is well on his way and is going to build, not a poor house with a cardboard roof and cheap materials, no, a proper brick villa with red bricks and tiles.