AllMovie

This nearly three-hour long Danish drama chronicles the life and times of Lise from the 1920s through the post-war years. Set in Copenhagen, Lise is first seen as a little girl, the daughter of a prominent industrialist and a hat shop owner. She grows up well aware that her father really wanted a boy. Her mother is also cold and distant. Perhaps her parents unwittingly encouraged her to grow up strong-willed and independent minded. After being forced to attend a secretarial school, Lise stands up to them and expresses her desire to become a reporter. Her father finally relents and helps her get a newspaper job. She proves to be an excellent journalist and it is therefore puzzling when she suddenly marries a dull foreign correspondent who promptly quits his job to work in her father's factory. She then begins having children and getting involved with the war.