Plot

Copenhagen 1919: A young worker finds herself unemployed and pregnant. She meets Dagmar, who runs an underground adoption agency. A strong connection grows but her world shatters when she stumbles on the shocking truth behind her work.

In Copenhagen, young pregnant Karoline takes on a position as a wet nurse for an older woman named Dagmar to help support herself. Dagmar operates a clandestine adoption agency under the guise of a candy shop, assisting disadvantaged mothers place their unwanted newborns in foster homes. Karoline grows close to Dagmar, but she is soon faced with the nightmarish reality she unwittingly entered.

Copenhagen, 1919: Karoline is unable to apply for widow's compensation because her husband Peter, who has not written back to her since being deployed, has not been officially declared dead. She is forced to move into squalid conditions, working as a seamstress with her friend Frida at a local factory. Peter, who has been brutally mutilated in battle, returns after Karoline has begun a romantic relationship with her boss Jørgen and fallen pregnant. Karoline, disgusted by Peter and optimistic about a life of better conditions with Jørgen, rejects him, but Jørgen's mother forbids the two to be married.

Alone and without prospects, Karoline attempts a shoddy abortion with a large needle at the local baths but is stopped by a woman called Dagmar and a 7-year-old Erena. Dagmar treats Karoline's wounds and instructs her to bring the baby to her sweets shop, where she secretly runs a business finding homes for unwanted babies. Karoline soon discovers Peter working at a local circus, and the two begin living together again. Meanwhile, Peter is besieged by violent psychotic episodes.

Karoline gives birth to a daughter. While Peter wants to keep the baby, sharing that he can no longer have any of his own, Karoline takes her to Dagmar's sweets shop. Unable to pay Dagmar's fee, Karoline offers herself up as a wet nurse and begins living at the shop. Karoline settles into her new life, befriending Erena, whom she occasionally breastfeeds, and bonding with Dagmar, who seems to share similar feelings of loneliness and guilt. The two women begin recreationally abusing ether together.

Dagmar accepts an abandoned baby boy, who she allows Karoline to care for until he can be found a home. As Karoline enjoys her time with him, Frida remains suspicious of Dagmar's operations. One evening, Erena asks to breastfeed. When Karoline rejects her, committed to breastfeeding the baby boy, Erena attempts to smother him, narrowly stopped by Karoline. The next day, Dagmar takes the baby away, claiming to have found him a family. Concerned this is in retaliation for her treatment of Erena, Karoline follows Dagmar and is horrified to witness her throttling the baby to death before dumping his body in a sewer drain. At the sweets shop, Karoline confronts Dagmar, who admits to killing all the babies she has collected, including Karoline's daughter, claiming she does not want to bring up something so innocent in a cruel world. Dagmar begins heavily dosing Karoline with ether.

Frida, having learned of Dagmar's services from Karoline, attends a friend dropping her unwanted baby off at the shop, but grows ever more uneasy when she glimpses a disoriented Karoline. Dagmar tries to convince Karoline to kill the baby, and the two brawl, accidentally smothering the baby to death. Later, the woman returns for her baby, regretting giving it up and threatening to call the police if it isn't returned. As Dagmar panics, Karoline jumps out of a window.

Police apprehend Dagmar and send Erena to an orphanage. Karoline, having survived her fall, goes to the traveling circus where Peter now lives. The two reconcile, and Karoline is weaned off of ether with Peter's support. She lies about the fate of her child. Dagmar is tried in court for her crimes, where she protects Karoline from association and defends her decision to spare the unwanted babies' lives of poverty. Sometime later, Karoline adopts Erena from the orphanage.