The film revolves around Vihtori's clandestine involvement with an attractive and rather worldly young woman named Ritva, who is planning to marry boxing champion and garage owner Klasu Tullari, son of Vihtori's friend Tomi, and their interactions with daughter Vappu and her fiancé, Peter von Schaslick, a mechanic in Klasu's garage, under the nose of the threatening and suspicious Klaara, with lazy son Nisse acting as a rather sardonic Greek chorus. Teuvo Tulio's only comedy.
The film deals with the Winter War of 1939-40 between Finland and the USSR. It begins with military exercises in the Autumn of 1939 and moves on to the Soviet invasion; the battle for Karelia; the bombing of Helsinki and other Finnish cities; as well as the activities of the foreign press corps in Finland and the heroic efforts of Finnish women and the Red Cross in their treatment of the wounded.
A bored rich girl falls in love with a dock worker.
