Laila and Lasse are two teenagers dreaming about careers as singers. (In real life, the actors were already the hottest numbers of the Finnish pop scene). Lasse's brother Rami dreams about motorbike racing (the actor later died in a car crash) and dates a pretty blond Anjukka. Her father works in the hot new field of TV advertising, which might be a good route to stardom for Laila and Lasse. But then Anjukka sets her eyes on Lasse and Rami sets his on Laila, and many a popular hit melody is sung in between.
Esko is going to a neighboring village to marry Kreeta after her father arranged the marriage with Esko's father. Esko takes Mikko as his travel companion and that's where Esko's ordeals begin.
St.Petersburg, 1830. An arrogant Finnish baron is playing cards with a Russian officer. Needless to say, the Finn wins and the Russian gets extremely annoyed. The situation is not helped by the fact that the baron has been seeing a girl that the Russian officer has also set his eyes on. They decide to have a duel and after the Finn wins fair and square, he has to escape because the untrustworthy Russians are after him.
In 1916, Finland is still a part of Russian Empire. Eugen Schauman murders the governor of Finland, and his fellow activists take on smaller tasks in the fight for freedom.
