A girl troops into a birthday party with her sister Gunnel and mother Hannah. Hulda welcomes them in, tearing up as she sees how thin they've become. Hulda's room ahs been set up to look cozy when it is in fact jsut as cold as the girl's back home. Gunnel whispers her disbelief that they're actually going to have a marzipan cake at this party.

Someone yells in the street and the children look out to see women beating a policeman to try and access the empty fish store for scraps and bones. It happens all the time, Hulda says. She brings out the cake, real and pink, and divides it among the children. The girl breaks hers into pieces to save, and Gunnel gobbles her piece in one. Gunnel, who'd begun stealing other people's rations, glared at the girl, who remembered how nice she'd been before the war.

Hulda bemoans the state of the starving children, saying aloud that they'll grow up to become cripples and invalids. Seeing Gunnel''s stormy face, Hannah ushers them quickly out of the party. The girl remarks how pretty the seagulls are, and Gunnel retorts that seaguls are only food now, that she'd rather have flying pork chops than seagulls. She says she's too hungry to keep living, threatening to hang or choke herself. Hannah begins crying, and the girl shoves her last piece of marzipan into her mouth. The two hold hands and run toward the house, sharing the bonded secret of their hunger.