Documentary covering five years in the life of a young dancer, Katja Björner, first seen as a thirteen-year-old student at the school of the Royal Swedish Ballet in Stockholm. Class, rehearsal, and performance scenes create a varied picture of her work and development during this period. She is seen working in the studio with ballerina Anneli Alhanko, Valentina Savina, and Mikhail Messerer. She and actor Erland Josephson discuss various topics, including two classical variations (from Giselle, Act II, and The sleeping beauty, Act III), which she demonstrates. She and other dancers prepare for the Prix de Lausanne, a competition for young dancers; rehearse Paquita with Savina; and perform in Natalie Conus's version of Swan lake. Other facets of a dancer's life are represented by sequences on the making and fitting of pointe shoes; a children's dance coached by Savina; a men's class taught by Aleksandr Khmelnitski; performance excerpts featuring Alhanko in MacMillan's Manon, and Romeo and Juliet, and Cullberg's Miss Julie; and Alhanko and her partner rehearsing with Rudi van Dantzig. Natalia Makarova appears briefly in a curtain call, watched by Katja; Robert Cohan discusses the dancer's goals. At the close of the film Katja, who leaves Sweden to dance with Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam, is seen dancing the pas de deux from van Dantzig's Romeo and Juliet with Clint Farha.