Vit eru í Íslandi fyrst í 20. øld. Karitas Jónsdóttir er í stórum systkinaflokki. Pápan hava tey mist á sjónum. Ímóti allari siðvenju hevur mamman sett sær fyri, at øll børnini skulu hava útbúgving – gentur sum dreingir. Hvør í sínum lag stríðast tey fyri at røkka hesum máli.
Karitas hittir eina konu, sum málar. Hon sær, hvussu gávurík Karitas er, og sær til, at hon sleppur á listaskúla í Keypmannahavn á leið 1920.
Afturkomin til Íslands fimm ár seinni og vóngóð um at fara undir sítt listarliga lívsverk, verður hon við barn, endar á einum fátæksligum smáplássi, og lívið broytir kós. Tilveran verður ein kensluborin togan millum at fáa list og kærleika at trívast í einsemi og fátækt – á smáplássi við sjómanni, fleiri børnum, í eini kroysu.
Søgan er um tey kor, sum konufólk lótu sær lynda, tað hjálpsemið, sum gjørdi, at tær hóraðu undan, og tað ófatiliga seiggið, ið var í teimum.
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The story is set in 20th century Iceland. Karitas Jónsdóttir is one of many siblings. They have lost their father to the sea. Against all custom, their mother has decided that all her children are to be educated – girls as well as boys. Each in their own way, they strive towards reaching this goal.
Karitas meets a woman who paints. She recognises Karitas’ talents, and sees to it, that Karitas is admitted to an art school in Copenhagen around the year 1920.
Having returned to Iceland five years later with hopes of commencing the artistic work of a lifetime, she becomes pregnant, winds up in a poverty-stricken settlement, and life takes a very different course. It is an emotional struggle for the cultivation of art and love in a place of loneliness and poverty – in a small town with a husband at sea, many children, homed in a cottage.
It is an account of the conditions women endured, of the charity that helped them survive, and of their unfathomable fortitude.
