This biographical film celebrates the life of the Finnish novelist and revolutionary Maiju Lassila (Asko Sarkola), who was born in 1868. Lassila’s early years are briefly shown; then the film richly details his active but paradoxically reclusive adult life, beginning with his sojourn in St. Petersburg, where he worked as a businessman. Unable to stay away from politics, he caused the assassination of a high-ranking Czarist and as a result, had to flee back to Finland to hide. Once established in the comparative safety of a small village, he taught in a school in order to support his real vocation as a writer. Always living on the edge of poverty, if not squarely in the middle of it, Lassila continues to avoid public contact – he keeps his identity low-key and camouflages it by publishing under a variety of pseudonyms.