Liisa, a young nurse returns to a remote island where she has spent the summer leaves in her youth. She soon gets to know some of the regular residents on the island, Pekka and Paula. During the summer party the underlying tensions mount.

The Finnish army retreats during the war summer of 1944. Corporal Lauri Ojala is left on the wrong side of the Vuoksi River. He decides to break ranks with the army and goes home. Two months later, Ojala is forced to dig his own grave.