In the midst of the Cold War, a love triangle unfolds within the competitive and intense world of international chess, leading to blackmail, desertion, and impossible love.

Two middle-aged brothers and farmers live together on the farm they grew up on. They are struggling with their loneliness and inability to run the household after their parents died so they put a "help wanted" ad in the local newspaper. They get more than they bargained for when Hillevi turns up with her mother and a goat.