Anne, Maria Annette Tanderød Berglyd is a ten-year-old girl who stands out in her class because she chooses to dress as a soldier rather than a princess, a difference that shapes how she sees the world and who she becomes. Her closest friend is Beate, Birgitte Victoria Svendsen, who embodies warmth, curiosity, and academic aptitude, and who carries a hopeful belief in love. Beate’s feelings are in clear contrast with Anne’s cautious stance toward romance, setting up a dynamic that threads through the entire story.
In their small community, a long-buried rumor about a girl named Helga looms large. Helga loved a boy named Lucas, and when jealousy flared, she cut another girl’s hair and left in a fit, only to vanish after jumping into the river. The rumor swirls that her father buried Helga’s body inside a wall in a house where Jørgen, Otto Garli, later moves in. Ole, Anne’s brother, claims to have seen Helga’s spirit, and the town tends to believe the tale as part of the layers of childhood superstition and gossip. The siblings’ world is a tangle of beliefs, whispers, and fear, even as Anne remains skeptical of the idea that love or a haunting can define a person.
As the school year unfolds, Beate and Anne hatch an plan to sift truth from rumor. Beate uses her social savvy to pull back Ellen’s (the popular girl in their class) secrets, and Anne quietly enters Ellen’s orbit to learn more about the crowd’s dynamics. Ellen, played by Vilde Fredriksen Verlo, has her own agenda, especially when it comes to Jørgen, a boy Anne begins to see in a new light after discovering his photo album and the quiet warmth it reveals.
Jørgen, Otto Garli, becomes a focal point for Anne’s shifting feelings. Anne dares to imagine him as a potential boyfriend, a thought that grows as she experiments with a harmless ruse: she writes a letter to Ellen as if it were from Jørgen, inviting Ellen to consider a romance. Ellen responds, but the letter never reaches its intended recipient, thanks to the tangled web of mischief and miscommunications that the girls weave in their attempt to outmaneuver one another. In parallel, a field bike race becomes a stage for competitive flirtation: Jørgen invites Anne to ride beside him, while Ellen’s jealously complicates the moment.
The plot thickens during a school event where Anne plants a love letter for Jørgen in his bag, and she asks Elinar, Beate’s crush, to become Beate’s boyfriend. Elinar agrees, heightening the competitive tension among the trio. Meanwhile, Ellen’s plan to gain control over the narrative escalates as she pushes to learn more about Anne’s diary. The diary itself becomes a tool of revelation and a symbol of how private feelings can be weaponized in front of peers.
A birthday party for Ellen brings the group together in a charged game of truth or dare. The spins of the bottle reveal confessions and affiliations: Knut, Beate’s friend, admits his crush on Ellen; Elinar admits Beate’s name as the object of affection; and Anne, chosen for a dare, kisses Jørgen. The moment intensifies as Ellen presses Anne about the diary, and Beate blurts out that the diary holds a treasure trove of personal secrets. The revelation triggers a heated confrontation: Anne lashes out at Beate for the secrets she’s exposed, and the tension threatens the fragile balance of their small social circle.
Back home, Anne faces consequences and doubt. She slashes away at the anger by confronting Ellen at her house, an act that leads to an impulsive moment where she cuts Ellen’s hair—an event witnessed by Jørgen and echoing the town’s earlier whispers about Helga. Ole, who had previously spoken of Helga’s spirit, finds Anne hiding, but her fear—rooted in the old rumor—begins to loosen as her mother quietly reminds her that mistakes do not define who you are. The parent-child conversation serves as a turning point, anchoring Anne in a more compassionate and mature sense of self.
In the aftermath, Anne reconciles with Beate, and Beate’s grandmother—Beate’s Grandmother, Birgitte Victoria Svendsen—offers a lasting sense of perspective, suggesting that the past can shape but does not control a person’s future. Anne decides to go to Jørgen’s house to seek forgiveness, a moment that culminates in a dramatic discovery: the wall that rumor held so long no longer hides a body. It becomes clear that Helga’s father, Randolf Walderhaug and the surrounding family history, has influenced how the story has been told, but the truth is far more hopeful—Helga was saved, and she and her love for Lucas live in memory, not in a tomb.
The epilogue offers a final note on growth and perception. Beate’s grandmother’s revelation reframes the past, Helga’s fate is recast from a grim fable to a story of resilience, and Ellen ends up dating Knut, Peder Holene, signaling a new equilibrium in the school’s social landscape. The story closes with Anne reflecting on love and childhood: a reminder that love is real at a young age and can be a powerful, transformative force when guided by kindness and responsibility.
> never be fooled by elders when they say love is not real at the age of 10, because it is totally true love.
