Siggi Jepsen is in Germany after the war in an institution for difficult-to-educate young people. He is to write an essay on the subject "The Pleasures of Duty," but has no idea. Only when he is locked a cell the next day do memories of his childhood during WWII break out: His father, police officer Jens Ole Jepsen, was commissioned to bring friendly expressionist painter Ludwig Nansen a professional ban at Nansen's surveillance. Siggi was supposed to help him, but eventually he rebelled against his father, sided with the recalcitrant Nansen, and hid some of the forbidden pictures, which eventually led to his imprisonment in the asylum.
Siggi is in prison during the post-war period and tasked to write an essay. He remembers that his father was supposed to ban his profession from a friend who was a painter and Siggi was supposed to help him but he rebelled.