The family of a poor shoemaker is struggling through a long winter. The father toils away by the window, making boots to be sold at the market. Beside him sits Aron, the youngest of the brood, who is not allowed to go out because of his bad cough.
The large family barely has money to get food on the table, but the father and son have a dream: to get a bright lamp on the ceiling. At the market, they manage to find a lamp so fine that their wealthy neighbour eagerly wants to buy it from them. The shoemaker doesn’t want to give in, though, as Aron, who is getting sicker by the day, needs the light it sheds to make it to summer.
After a winter of hardship, the father and son finally get to go on their sunny fishing trips together.