After Nazi Germany invades Poland in September 1939, Russia attacks Finland two months later. Finnish reservists leave home and go to war. Brothers Martti and Paavo Hakala, farmers from the municipality of Kauhava in the province of Pohjanmaa/Ostrobothnia, serve in a Finnish platoon.

Antti and Annikki have secretly decided to spend Christmas in Leppävaara. The family's entrepreneurial son Erkki has gone to Moscow with his yarn Jaakko Järvenheimo to sell tampers and ski packages to the Russians. The Metsola family (except for Erkki, Jaakko and Heikki's family) gather once again in Leppävaara to celebrate the Christmas of memories.

A first-time substitute teacher Ensio finds a boy sitting underneath a school desk. He decides to help, but perhaps taking the boy to swimming classes and jumping along in the swimming pool goes too far, especially when the boy's mother hears about it.