Frida and Björn have kids, a good apartment and jobs that they are happy for. And yet something is not quite right. Maybe our biology has more to say about our happiness than we assume.

World War II is around the corner, but the only thing Sally Bauer can think of is the ocean. Her dream is to swim across the English Channel. Her father has tried to exorcise her obsession with swimming since she was a toddler, without success. An unwanted pregnancy forces her to abandon her dream – and herself. The child’s father does not want to be involved, so as a woman in ...