In the 1930s, middle-aged museum curator Tauno Saarinen yearns for a young beautiful maid and writes a lengthy confession about his feelings which he gives his wife Elisabet to read. Elisabet shows the writings to her husband's sister Naimi, an art critic who tries to reconcile with her ex-husband despite a spiteful mother-in-law. Meanwhile, things gets worse between Tauno and Elisabet when the young maid, seduced by Tauno, becomes pregnant. Based on a novel by Helvi Hämäläinen, first published in 1941 but partly censored until 1995 because allegedly based on true incidents involving well-known people.

Nightmare 2 – Painajainen jatkuu (Nightmare 2 - nightmare continues) is a sequel to the horror film Nightmare – painajainen merellä (Nightmare - nightmare at the sea), continuing the horror spin-off series of a popular Finnish daytime soap opera Salatut Elämät (Secret Lives).