Eccentric small town librarian Helinä struggles between everyday life and her love for the theatre, directing amateurs for a play by the famous Finnish writer Aleksis Kivi. She still carries the torch for her teenage sweetheart Leo, now a married chimney sweeper but still an aspiring playwright, despite his wife's opinions. Helinä thinks Leo is Aleksis Kivi, and so does Leo himself. Discouraged by the society, they end up in a mental institution but finally manage to stage an outdoor premiere of the play.

Jukka, 13, is coached in photography by his openly gay art teacher. With his dead father's old camera, Jukka sees Johanna, a beautiful girl in her early twenties being physically abused by her stepfather. With the help of the local fire department, Jukka comes to her rescue. He quickly befriends the girl who works in a nearby supermarket, claims to become her manager and enters her in a beauty contest.

That Kiljunen familys sets out find their two missing family members, who have been sent to Tampere by the Matalamäki boarding school for retraining due to poor school performance.

Gravity researcher Erik Rankamaa dies in his prime in 1970. He is been deep frozen and gets defrosted in 1999, while people of his time are still alive.