Entomologist Pauli Bergström and kidney surgeon Lauri Mustonen share a 280 m2 rented apartment in the centre of Helsinki.
Their peaceful, uneventful life is interrupted when their landlady, aging aristocrat Lydia Molotova, decides to give the apartment as a gift to her nephew, Sergeant John Molotov.
Immediately, Sergeant Molotov raises the rent by a factor of more than ten, which is more than Bergström and Mustonen can pay.
The sub-tenant is Carl Robert Palmberg, a Finland-Swedish interior decorator in his 30s, who is openly gay.
Things get further complicated when Sergeant Molotov has to undergo surgery because of an infected kidney, and Mustonen decides to operate him privately.