The idyllic and secluded Finnish archipelago. The pandemic soars across the world. Elli’s world trembles as her husband’s old friend arrives at the island.

The Finland of the future has gone mad. A bored young woman, Viola, gets a brilliant idea. She decides to fool the infamous Lone Rider and his sidekick Tonto. Viola makes a wanted poster of herself, and assumes the identity of a highwayman named Gonzales. Viola/Gonzales surrenders to a quirky bandit duo, who now believe they will be well rewarded for bringing this outlaw to authorities. As the pair is taking Gonzales to the gallows, they get lost in the desert. A day's journey turns into an adventure that tests the trio's physical resilience and mental maturity.

In 1944, at the tail end of the war—in which Finland aligned with Germany for a time in a bid to fight off an invasion by the Soviet Union, before reaching a peace deal with the latter which involved kicking German troops out—soldiers Heikki and Pauli take their first steps toward adulthood in the unforgiving expanse of the Arctic Circle, and interpreter Saara Vainio leaves her husband for German officer Duisberg, defying both convention and country. When news of Finland’s armistice with the Soviet Union reaches the front lines, everything changes: Heikki and Pauli are forced to turn their weapons on those they once fought alongside, and Saara and other women must choose between love and loyalty.