It is 1918, and the Civil War is raging in Finland; the Social-Democratic Reds are fighting the Senate-supported Whites. Private Aaro Harjula returns from Germany and joins the non-socialist Whites. He is shocked to see how the Whites treat the defeated, rebellious Reds. He witnesses Red female soldiers being group-raped and executed without a trial. One of the women escapes execution, and Harjula decides to take her to a nearby military tribunal. When Harjula is transporting his prisoner in a rowboat, she tries to escape, causing the rowboat to capsize. Both Harjula and the female prisoner are forced to swim to a desolate island. On the island, her anger gradually dissipates, and a strange friendship develops between the two.