The main character, Elje Jesaja Ström (1914-1947), incapacitated, farm-hand from Skurup, Skåne, Sweden, is "he who comes in the name of the Lord". The son of farm-hand Albin Ström and a Galician guest worker who left Elje when he was six months old.
When at St. Lars Mental hospital, Elje confuses his brief visit to Brnsk, Poland with the Nazi devastation in 1939 of the same village. He was there, in deep psychosis, slowly becoming the ambitious disciple of Kejsaren/der Kaiser/the Emperor.
Anders Åberg received the award for best actor at Guldbaggegalan 1979.