The setting is the small Andersens Hotel by the North Sea in the northernmost part of Jutland in the summer of 1928, where the hotel's wealthy summer regulars and the hard-working local employees reunite as they have done for many years. They look at life very differently, but every summer their worlds merge when they meet at the hotel, and here amid the sandy grass dunes there is room for hope, secrets and showdowns.

A year has passed and it is the summer of 1929. The regulars are back in the expectation of being pampered again by Mrs. Andersen and her girls. But also new guests move in– two young men who are going to turn it all upside down. In addition, the son of the deceased hotel host returns home from America to settle the legacy of his father which means new challenges for the small hotel. Meanwhile, the maid Fie and the wholesaler's daughter Amanda are each trying in their own way to find love and gain a foothold in life. All the action threads come together in the last episode of the season, on a weekend in October 1929, as the New York Stock Exchange collapses and sends shock waves across the world.

In the summer of 1930 the crisis after the American Wall Street crash is beginning to spread to Europe. The usual guests have gathered to enjoy the summer and escape to cheerful holiday life, but behind closed doors, reality is quite different. Wholesaler Madsen is bankrupt and fighting a desperate battle to get back in business. Count Ditmar struggles to preserve his marriage and to hide his homosexuality. Actor Weyse has a secret relationship with a young acting student, and manufacturer Frigh is awakened by the midlife crisis his wife had thought was under control. Everyone is preoccupied with their own concerns and they do not notice at all that there are big changes happening in nearby Germany.

The summer of 1931 heralds new times in the small hotel. After an illness, Mrs. Andersen has withdrawn a little and has left the day-to-day operations to Fie. The regulars move in for the summer, but new ones also arrive, and then the looming crisis of the 1930s moves ever dangerously closer and closer to the hotel.

The year is 1932 and the regulars have moved in to enjoy their holiday. But when a famous Copenhagen couple gets involved in the action, nothing goes quite as usual. The fifth season in the company of hotel guests and staff brings a conclusion for many things. But also a new beginning.

Six years have passed and it is the summer of 1939. Dark clouds have been looming over Europe, but the regulars have gone on holiday once again. Amanda struggles to keep her small commercial film company alive, but she does not get much help from her sister Vera, a young lady with firm opinions. Mrs. Frigh has become the manager of the tobacco factory and has big plans for her adult son Leslie, but she has not taken into account the new maid Nana. Actor Weyse is trying to forget an embarrassing accident on stage this spring. And wholesaler Madsen hopes to be allowed to build in Nazi Germany, while Mrs. Fjeldsø tries to help her daughter-in-law's brother, the Austrian Jew Robert, who is on the run from the Nazis.

The seaside hotel opens for a new summer with Amanda as new owner. Denmark was invaded April 9. Previous years' guests come, partly to get away from the Germans. They all deal with problems from the German occupation.

It is 1941 and for the second summer in a row, World War II looms over the lives of those in Denmark. Edward Weyse, Georg Madsen and other regulars at Andersens Seaside Hotel find it harder and harder to ignore the war as manager Amanda Madsen opens the hotel's doors again for the new season.

It is the summer of 1945 and the hotel opens again. Everyone is eager to enjoy liberation together, and finally peace has come, but is there really peace?

Summer 1946. Guests and employees are back at the hotel. Ellinor Seerup plans take hold of the hotel. Is it a sign that an era has come to an end, or should one make one last attempt to save the place?