 The film s action centres on the 14-year-old Peter who lives alone with his mother. Peter, who is currently in the difficult phase of self-discovery, has focused all his longings on his mother. Her own unsatisfied longings mean that she is incapable of reacting accordingly to the needs of her child. Instead, she puts up a barrier without even being aware that she s doing it. Peter makes contact with a radical youth gang in his class. They are all children from the upper class. Peter s attention is directed to Axel, the gang leader, who similarly treats him as coldly as Peter s mother does. His mother becomes acquainted with a young man and, for a while, it looks as if this man has appeared in Peter s life at just the right time to help him in his self-discovery. The mother s longings are so great, though, that she takes up all of the man s time for herself and ignores Peter even more. Peter gets increasingly involved in the brutal activities of his gang and lets himself be manoeuvred into a dangerous rival position by the gang leader. Slowly but surely, Peter slips away from reality and heads for a fateful conclusion.