Hur gör man för att rädda ett folk?

The physician and professor Herman Lundborg headed the world's first state racial biology institute in Uppsala, Sweden, from 1922 to '35. With his extensive racial research he wanted to establish where in the country the Swedish people was at its purest, and in which areas the population was mixed with other peoples who, according to racial ideology, were alien, like the Finns and Sámi. His mission may have been to "save the Swedish people", yet throughout life he was devoted to one particular subject: the Sámi. It might be said of him that he was obsessed by racial mixing and with his great research project in northern Sweden: to map out the demise of the Sámi. In his deeds lies a paradox: On his travels, he is drawn to a woman of Finnish descent, who also has the features of a Sámi, according Lundborg. He has a child with her. In the Old Cemetery in Uppsala, in the grand Lundborg family grave, they all lie buried - Herman, the woman he met in northern Sweden and their child, and his wife and the two children they had in Uppsala. Several people in Lapponia, who are today delving into the history of racial biology, take part in the film; some of them even have memories of the time. For example, we meet the artist Katarina Pirak Sikku in Jokkmokk and Anna Sunna and her aunt Edit Sunna who are searching for traces of the past.