A story of renowned Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck, and the love affair between her and a younger art critic Einar Reuter.

Somewhere in Estonia at the beginning of the 18th century. After ten years of war, plague and famine, the land is swept clean of people. The few remaining souls are scattered about, living in misery and lacking hope. An anxious silence hangs over the land. On one particularly starry night, two peasants find a stranger on the seashore. He's disheveled and comatose. They take him to the local manor lord and slowly bring him back to consciousness. When he opens his eyes, he realizes that he can't remember who he is or how he got there.

En 1944, la guerra estalla en Estonia cuando los estonios de las fuerzas alemanas en retirada luchan contra los estonios reclutados en el avance del Ejército Rojo soviético.