Sylvi's child is run over by a bus, prompting her to drink poison. She goes blind in the process, causing her husband to lust after her much younger sister. After undergoing a dangerous operation to regain her sight, she hides her repaired vision behind dark eyeglasses, so she can spy on her sister and husband as they carry on their affair.
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.
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.
