Returning to Helsinki from an unsuccessful tour of the countryside, an artist family finds itself in financial difficulties due to unemployment. Volmari Suurmetso, an engineer who has fallen in love with the family's singing daughter Sointu, wants to help and hires the whole family for a new revue. Sointu's sister Jutta and her boyfriend, journalist Erkka Karhu, write a script called "The Emperor's New Points," inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale and the clothing coupons used during times of scarcity.