In 19th-century Norway, the Royal Postmaster General enrolls Jesper Johansen, his lazy, spoiled, self-centered son into a postman training academy hoping that it will reform him. Jesper deliberately underperforms, forcing his father to finally send him to the distant, northern island town of Smeerensburg with the task of posting 6,000 letters within a year. If Jesper fails, he will be cut off from the family's fortune.