Martti A. Joenpää, a serious young man and son of a poor single mother in Finnish Lapland, marries a local girl and moves south to Helsinki after landing his first job as a copywriter at a hot advertising agency. Edgy and workaholic Martti shows little concern for his wife and son, even less for his rival colleagues, and soon gets promoted to account executive status while still yearning for the simple rural lifestyle of his youth.