Hans is tasked by his parents with packing up the belongings of his foster brother Arne and taking them to the attic. Piece by piece, memories of their time together resurface. Twelve-year-old Arne comes to the scrapyard of Harald Burger, a friend of his father's, after the death of his entire family as a foster child. He is supposed to find new siblings in Hans, Wiebke, and Lars. Hans immediately takes the new brother under his wing, while the others view him more distantly and with jealousy, even though Arne admires Wiebke in particular and does everything he can to win her friendship. However, he struggles for a long time to connect with Wiebke and Lars's clique. When he even risks his friendship with the old shipyard worker Kalluk to become one of them, an accident occurs for which Arne feels responsible. He disappears without a trace.