Der ingen skulle tru at nokon kunne bu

At the bottom of a fjord arm in Tana, 75-year-old Charles Jensen lives with a dog and two horses, miles from the nearest neighbour, with no road connection to the outside world. But Charles is a tough guy who lives his life in solitude or who goes off the road to spend the night in a self-made tent in the mountains on a winter's day.

Eikemo is a small hamlet in a mountain valley on the roadless side of the Åkrafjord in Sunnhordland. Six people live there, among them two young and unmarried goat farmers. But if Eikemo is to have a future, they need a wife. The hope is that one or more of the budei who run the støl on Eikemo summer days will stay on after the støl's life is over.

In Vassvika in Sjunkfjorden, a few miles north of Bodø, live two fishing families. They lack a road, and they lack a quay. If it rains, or if the fjord is full of ice, they are completely isolated. While the guys are fishing, two women are alone in Vassvika. One is 95 years old, the other 25 - and comes from China.

On Bleikøya just outside Oslo harbor live Berit and Christian Gulbrandsen, the only permanent residents on the islands at the entrance to Oslo. Their house is three hundred years old, the road to the pier is a bad footpath, and many a winter they are isolated when there is ice on the fjord. The man is completely in need of care, but still they cannot imagine moving.

In Sihccajavri on Finnmarksvidda lives fellow girl Mari Anne Kumpulainen Vanhaphia, a child of nature who lives off what nature has to offer, and who foregoes socializing with other young people in order to be at home. Her husband is a Finnish reindeer owner, and since he cannot move his animals across the border, they live in separate places.

On Kvebergsøya in Folldal, Martin Kjønsberg, former headmaster, and Eris Davids, originally from Germany, have settled down on an ancient farm and started a new life. The horse is central to their lives, whether they use it as a working animal in the forest and in the fields, they ride in the mountains, or they go on a sleigh ride across the winter expanses.