This biographical film celebrates the little-known life of the Finnish novelist and revolutionary Maiju Lassila (Asko Sarkola), born in 1868. Lassila's early years are briefly shown, then the film richly details his active and paradoxically reclusive adult life, beginning with his sojourn in St. Petersburg, working as a businessman. Unable to stay away from politics, he caused the assassination of a high-ranking Czarist and as a result, had to run back to Finland to hide. Once established in the comparative safety of a small village, he taught school in order to support his real vocation as a writer. Always living on the edge of poverty, if not square in the middle of it, Lassila continues to avoid public contact - he keeps his identity low-key and camoflages it by publishing under a variety of pseudonyms.
as Writer Algot Lassila, aka Maiju Lassila, aka Irmari Rantamala
as Olga Esempio
as Gunnar Avanto
as Kalle
as Kurttuska
as Arwid
as Pikku-Pouvali
as Sulo Esempio
as Rawitz
as Magda
as Maria Lassila
as Young Algot
as Lundberg
as Pöntinen
as Commandant Carl von Wendt
as Anna Belostotskaja
as Russian Army Captain
as Von Plehwe
as Terrorist
as Rebel officer
as General Porunov
as Chief editor
as Circus manager
as Terrorist
as Terrorist
as Oskari Skoff
as Olga Esempio in prologue (voice)
as Narrator (voice)
as (voice)
as Ploughman (uncredited)
as News photographer (uncredited)
as Orthodox priest (uncredited)
as Algot's father (uncredited)
as Restaurant hostess (uncredited)
