The year is 1895 in a small village in Savo, where new ideas such as women's rights and folk high schools are vehemently opposed by Pastor Jussilainen, both in his home and in the parish. His wife Eveliina, the maids, and the conservative parishioners all experience his vehemence. However, the pastor meets his match when his mother-in-law arrives for a visit.
Young and innocent maid Elina is persuaded into forgetting her childhood sweetheart Uolevi, and to marry Klaus Kurki, a local nobleman with money and influence. An ideal match according to her family and the greedy parish priest, but all is not as it seems: Kurki is a vicious man, tormented by the spirit of his last wife.
A woman in an abusive relationship is made to realize that she can no longer tolerate her fiance's ill treatment toward her.
