The film stars Donner himself as a refrigerator salesman named Juha Holm who starts an affair with a young female hitchhiker named Maria (played by Kristiina Halkola).

According to film historian Peter von Bagh "[t]he arena of conflict here, as in Donner's subsequent films, is the bed, wheresoever it might be.

The point of departure is a family portrait: an ideal image of happiness, a miniature of affluent Finland.

The protagonist borders on burnout, and the camera follows the drama of the other disintegrating characters and relationships as if in a laboratory experiment.

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