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In 1963, a business adventure begins in a basement in a small Danish town. Within a few years, the company has 3500 employees, many of them women who are experiencing for the first time the joys and challenges of earning their own money.
2022
Axel Byvang has an idea to work his way up from poor conditions: a device that can give modern women a smart hairstyle in 10 minutes. But the first experiments in a humble basement room go horribly wrong.
With the country's biggest beauty fair just around the corner, Axel enlists the help of Tove and Frans. Birthe's husband Jørgen is diagnosed with leukemia, which only an expensive new form of chemotherapy in Germany can cure.
The curler scandal at the beauty fair has gone around Denmark. Axel is out of business and now has 1000 defective curler sets that no one wants to buy. Birthe tries to raise money for Jørgen's chemotherapy.
Axel borrows a million kroner from the bank to build a factory that will produce Carmen Curlers for the whole world. Now he just needs the customers. But the rumor about the downturn from the beauty fair has spread throughout Denmark.
The Carmen Curlers factory opens, and Birthe has become HR manager. Axel looks forward to the Christmas sale cementing Carmen Curlers as an indispensable part of everyday life for all women in the Nordics.
Curlers are being spat out at the busy Carmen factory, but for Frans there is not much to do. That's why he takes a job from the fashion photographer Benjamin in Copenhagen, where he has to do the hair of a French film star.
With the expectation of a spectacular Christmas sale, Axel decides to win Tove back. It will not be an easy task, however, because Tove goes her own way. Birthe's Christmas is ruined by an unpleasant surprise that forces her to seek help.
Axel and Frans are hugely successful in Paris and return home with an order for 10,000 curler sets. The order must be delivered within 14 days, which puts the Carmen ladies under tremendous pressure. Jørgen receives good news from the doctor.
2023
Axel's dream of exporting Carmen Curlers faces competition from Clarice Cosmetics. Birthe rallies factory workers, but a disgruntled group threatens to strike. Cooperation between the companies is a possibility.
During an American visit, factory worker Else suffers an accident. Birthe and Axel scramble to hide safety lapses before contract signing. They face pressure from Else's mother and media scrutiny over worker conditions.
50,000 sets of Carmen Curlers are on their way to the US, but now Europe also needs their supplies, so Axel expands and hires people for night shifts. Birthe is tasked with getting 70 ladies for the factory, but how do you do that when the whole of Denmark has a major labor shortage? Birthe recognizes that alternative methods must be used. Axel tries to enjoy his success but the loneliness begins to eat away at him.
Morten Hee Andersen
Axel
Maria Rossing
Birthe
Rosalinde Mynster
Tove
Nicolai Jørgensen
Frans
Fanny Leander Bornedal
Kathrine
Christian Tafdrup
Poul
Lars Ranthe
Jørgen
Mille Lehfeldt
Vita
2025
2019
