Year 1986 in
Oulu, Finland. Elli Nyman marries Kauko Kurkela, convicted of murder, in the prison chapel, but Elli's son Mika Uurassalmi does not like his new stepfather. Mika is about to go to
Helsinki to study at the
University of Technology, and Elli is buying an apartment for her son in the
Merihaka district. By chance, Mika meets his old schoolmate Ulla in Helsinki, who has come to work in the capital. After a reserved beginning, a romantic relationship develops between the young people. However, Kurkela's possible tendency to engage in intimate
domestic violence causes Mika's everyday life to be disrupted and he has to worry about the well-being of his mother in his childhood home, as well as his own future in the capital with his studies and Ulla. ==Cast==