Frayja captures the eye of the engineer, Bjorn Theodor (Heino Ferch), at a village dance, spirits him away, and doesn't return, Agga breathlessly tattles to the policeman, until 5 a.m. ("Five thirteen," he corrects her). Frayja tells Agga how they spent the night, leaving out the detail of their lovemaking but speaking of the softness of the long summer night, the look of the sea, and the stroll they took on the path through the ... well, through the fish-drying racks.

The racks come up later, after winter sets in and Frayja begins to take long, despairing walks in the snow. She hates Iceland, she cries out: The cold and the snow and the seagulls laughing at her, and the smell of fish ... but home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.

The understory involves Agga's gradual transition into womanhood. Watching Frayja, sometimes spying on her, she gets insights into the adult world and translates them into breathless bulletins for the young cop. She plays both sides of the street, at one point forging a letter to keep Frayja and the engineer in contact. And she learns hard lessons when Frayja's best friend is mistreated by her husband and threatens suicide, and Frayja calms her in an extraordinary scene by getting on her hands and knees, letting down her long hair, creeping to the friend, and calming her with its smell. This seems to refer to a childhood memory, and has an unexpected emotional impact.

The movie balances between dark and light, between warmth and cold, like an Icelandic year. It's scored with Glenn Miller and other swing bands from the war era, and opens and closes with the 1950s hit "Sh-boom." The message I think is that tragedy is temporary and the dance of life goes on. Soon it will be Agga's turn to choose a partner.

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