Poor countryside girl Elza has been unsuccessfully looking for a job in Riga before she gets help from an acquantance. After that, fortune seems to turn and rich aged factory owner Ķikulis wants to marry Elza. Reluctant at first, she finally agrees but the marriage doesn't go smoothly.

Doctor Rūdolfs spends time at his country cottage, and there he meets teacher Laura - a mother of two children whose husband is in prison. Rūdolfs rescues Laura's daughter, Zaiga, who is sick, befriends her son, Maris, and falls in love with Laura, but she desperately struggles with her feelings of responsibility towards her family.