A story about the life of Eero, a machine shop worker, and his younger brother Martin in the working-class neighborhoods of Helsinki, and the change brought about by a conductor and his daughter who move in next door.
1790 Turku. After Katarina Thorwöst becomes a widow, there are many suitors, but her heart belongs to the fencing teacher lieutenant Carl-Magnus Schildt.
In a military camp, the arrival of a group of women causes admiration and confusion. In particular, Sofia, the captain's mother-in-law, turns the lives of the general and soldier Hurska upside down.
A young woman is forced into an arranged marriage by her family in hopes of securing their future, but her husband turns out to be an alcoholic brute of a man and she longs for the man she truly loves.
