Overworked industrialist Daniel escapes the hustle and bustle of high society to his old workplace at the Akkakoski log floating site. Working under a pseudonym, he befriends Moterni-Jaska, the oldest member of the loggers' group. His daughter Elisabeth follows in her father's footsteps by signing up as a camp cook and soon finds herself falling for Kari, the foreman.

It is the summer of 1941. An eastern-Finnish machine gun company receives an order to turn in their surplus equipment. The company is transferred to the front lines. The next morning the soldiers wake to the sound of guns – the war has begun.

A wide-eyed doll salesman is mistaken for a bomb-wielding anarchist by the oppressive forces of the totalitarian state.

Kalle, a shy and absent-minded civil servant at the comparison agency, unwittingly becomes Minister of War. He receives help in his new role from Maria, the daughter of Finance Minister Karpio. Problems in the performance of his duties lead Kalle to a court martial, and he resigns from his ministerial post to start a new life with his neighbor Leena.

Professor Visaoksa's spoiled city kids are sent to the countryside to live with their strict general uncle and learn some manners. The general's buddy, who tells the kids war stories and is nicknamed Sergeant Mynkhausen, finally gets the kids under control.

Elina and Pentti are celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary and have invited Elina's cousin Ann-Mari and her husband Teemu to their village. During the evening, the group begins reminiscing about the past, revealing Elina's brief romance with Martti before she got married.

Professor Derek Wytycky and his son Hans, who are immersed in the study of Indian poetry, wake up one day to find that the mother of the family is nowhere to be seen. When their housekeeper Gloria also leaves, having had enough of the absent-minded men, father and son hire private detective Mademoiselle Catherine Anaconda to investigate Mrs. Wytycky's disappearance.

Senator Fredrik, who advocates a policy of appeasement, expels his nephew Robert, an activist and lover of Justiina, from his home. Decades later, the lovers meet again when Robert returns to claim his inheritance.

It is a time of extreme housing shortage in Helsinki. People with room in their flats are required either to find subtenants or to lodge anyone sent by the housing commission. Abel and Jussi Siimes, two devoted haters of women, find themselves in this predicament. They need to find a subtenant quickly to avoid the possibility of the housing commission sending a woman, God forbid it, to live with them. Abel's acquaintance, an assessor, recommends his nephew Kaino as the perfect choice.

Masa, a drifter, meets Pikku-Aleksi, whose wife Jenny has just left him penniless on the side of the road. In their search for food, the friends end up at an army barracks, where Masa is mistaken for Major Pikkarainen, who has come for an inspection.