[1] The film is based on the first two volumes of Väinö Linna's novel trilogy Under the North Star.

The film begins with the founding of the Koskela croft in the 1880s and tells the story of the life of the people of the fictional Pentinkulma village until about 1920.

The central theme is the unstable position of crofters and their goal to improve their living conditions.

The rural upper class, such as the priestly family, and the poor people, whose socio-economic status is weaker than that of crofters, also play an important role.

The story of the film goes all the way to the end of the Finnish Civil War between the Red Guards (Crofters) and the Whites (Government).