An comedy set in 1960s Helsinki. The story revolves around Elsa, a resolute hatmaker who is in complete control of her life. Besides running her shop, she sometimes doubles as a fortune teller. When Jan, a Czechoslovakian jazz musician and Elsa's old lover comes to town to perform at a "peace and friendship festival", her well-organised life is jolted out of balance.
Antero Rousku is a storeman in a paint store. His job requires raw muscle power, mixing paints and carrying house repair materials around to earn his daily bread. But the basic salary is not enough for Rousku. He also sells a lot of stuff on the side from the storeroom directly to Jylhäkorpi, a frequent visitor, bypassing company bookkeeping. Rousku's colleague in the cellar storeroom is Raninen whose life consists of work, quarreling with his wife, and lottery. Raninen wants to win the main prize but he wants to have the right numbers in exactly the order in which they appear from the lottery machine. Raninen is not the sharpest pencil in the pencil box. Rousku's freedom is threatened by his relationship to the saleswoman Karita. Rousku wants to keep a distance to the woman except in bed. Karita has decided otherwise.
Once a hugely popular clown trio, Oskar, Max, and Viktor are now living very different lives. The intense fight that ended their friendship has left them on bad terms for over 40 years. Max is battling colon cancer, Viktor's wife is losing a battle to Alzheimer's, and Oskar, who's never been the best dad, is trying to rescue his daughter from an abusive relationship. The good old days are gone indeed. Despite their situations, each one still tries to maintain a sense of humor. They look fondly on the days when they were slapstick superstars. However, when it comes to the issues that led to their career demise, they just can't seem to let their anger go. As they hesitantly agree to a reunion, they begin to find that the only way back to the top is through forgiveness.
Rousku and Raninen are fleeing their unemployment by setting up a construction company. Occupational illiteracy is not an obstacle and accounting is fine when Rouskun's mate deals with things. The entrepreneurs know that the poor can be, but not artificial. But what's the point for the scratchy women? Especially when Rousku gets to look in the mirror again and find out what kind of father, such a daughter.
Baby Girl, 30, a poet with a bachelor's degree in arts, is anguished because of her relationship with Pirkka, a relatively smart, young man. Baby Girl's parents, Eila and Rampe, do their best to become friends with Pirkka and his elegant mother. Through coincidence and error Eila occupies her summerhouse neighbors' empty luxury villa. When Pirkka's mother drops by, Eila lies that she and Rampe own the fancy house. The showing off and lying escalate when Eila's mother and sister show up. The real owners of the house, an upper-class couple, Thomas and Monica, are driven away to Eila and Rampe's modest cottage.
The Unknown Woman is a documentary film scripted and directed by Elina Kivihalme. It depicts the reality of Finnish agriculture and forestry during the war years, when the home front relied entirely upon the work and endurance of the women. All farm work, caring for the children, woodcutting and other forestry operations were undertaken by the civilians, as the men in their prime were on the front.
