Bernie, a self-destructive drunk, spends a rainy day on the beach of a rundown Danish seaside resort with a little girl named Winnie, who wears a steel leg brace, and who may - or may not - be his niece or daughter. He spouts poetry, encounters a gay kiosk keeper (Peter Sellers, in a cameo), guzzles beer, and gets drunker and drunker, often ignoring the little girl, until he finally collapses on a street.