A farmer's wife is seduced into running away from her stolid older husband by a city slicker, who enslaves her in a brothel.

Juha lives together with younger woman Marja. Juha loves her, but Marja seems to belong to somewhere else. Things get complicated when casanova Shemeikka arrives from strange lands and takes Marja away with him.

Eastern Finland in 18th century. Farmer Juha has raised an orphan girl Marja and married her. Karelian trader Shemeikka visits the farm and starts to make advances to young and beautiful Marja, tempting her to run away with him.

On a farm in up-country Sweden, an enigmatic stranger comes to a conservative peasant community and seduces a farmer's wife.