Mauri Miettinen and his wife Anja are living in a happy marriage. Everything changes when Mauri's old acquaintance comes to visit and threatens to reveal Anja's dark past.
Wager is Count Mauritz Armborg, the young master of the estate. Linnanheimo plays Katariina (Catherine) the nanny to Mauritz's nieces and nephews. The two fall in love and decide to escape to Italy via Denmark where they have planned to get married. There are always complications because Mauritz's grandmother doesn't want him to marry below him - she has decided that Mauritz is to marry the Swedish beauty, Ingeborg Liliecrona.
Set in turn of the century Helsinki, author Arvo Helavalla's novel makes an indelible impression on adolescent Auli Ranta. She idolizes the author of a work that can never be forgotten.
In the early 1800s, Finnish governor's daughter first detests but soon falls in love with Russian Czar Alexander I who has just taken Finland over from Sweden's rule.
Once a naïve, love-struck girl now forsaken by her lover, Maija leaves her island home to work as a housemaid in the city, only to be seduced by her employer's son Erkki, then forced to leave the household in order to avoid the scandal of a pregnancy. With few prospects for a decent job, Maija is reduced to working as a bar hostess to make ends meet, ever fending off the advances of disreputable clients, even as she continues to hold out hope for an enduring love that will redeem her from her fate.
