A government official decides to steal a $25-million payroll and then fake his own death. However, in the process he is forced to kill an innocent bystander. He moves to a small rural village to start a new life with a new name and his new money, but finds that it's harder to escape his past than he thought it would be.
Sten Lehtoja, a married, middle-aged businessman, picks up a young hitchhiker, Elsie, while driving to his summer home. Elsie spends the night and becomes his mistress. Later during the summer, Elsie also begins an affair with Reino, the teenage son of a local storekeeper. Sten offers to divorce his wife, and Elsie, attracted by the prospect of a secure social position, agrees to marry him when the divorce becomes final. One night when the couple are in bed, Reino climbs a ladder and attempts to force his way into their room; he falls and breaks his neck, and to avoid scandal Sten hides the body. But the strain of guilt ruins the romance, and Elsie contacts the police, who arrest her lover.
Trade counselor Lillukka leaves his entire fortune to Pekka Puupää, who, thanks to cartoons and films, has become closer to him than his immediate family, who are pursuing their own interests. Pekka starts running a toy factory and hires a freckle-faced bowling boy as the company's errand boy. Widowed trade counselor Gunilla Lillukka tries to get married to Pätkä, who has been promoted to assistant director.
A lock factory worker Pertti would like to marry his girlfriend Verna, but fears they don't have enough money. His brother Martti is a member of a youth gang that is planning a robbery with three other young men. When the boys have to flee at the time of the robbery, Pertti who secretly shadowed them sees an opportunity to solve his money problem.
An architect, who has recently married a new, younger wife, tries to re-connect with his ex-wife, who is being courted by another man.
Pekka and Pätkä work as inventors. Pätkä accidentally takes a photograph of bank robbers, who begin to track down the photographer. Soma Koivu, the former secretary of the property manager Kiivas, and police officer Antero Kangas help Pekka and Pätkä catch the robbers at a film studio where Pekka is working as a stand-in for Superman.
A widow and a husband tired of a loveless marriage rekindle the attraction they shared in their youth.