Tar Steam Princess Armada travels along Lake Saimaa to St. Petersburg and back during the years of Russian rule over Finland. The ship's crew gets tired of their sophisticated coffee maker and replaces her with Roma girl Veera, who has escaped from an arranged marriage. On the way back, mysterious passengers appear on the ship.
Concertmaster Orasto and his pianist wife Elna hire Maija, who has been treated harshly by life, as their domestic helper. Erkki, the composer son of a noisy family of musicians, falls in love with Maija, but difficulties pile up in the way of the young couple's happiness.
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.
