Andres is a sensitive teenager raised by his strict grandparents in a small bland Soviet Estonian town. He is being bullied at school and his only friends are the drunkards, whores, and thieves living next door.
Three friends return from a vacation and discover that the TV studio they work for has gone bankrupt - so they decide to start their own costume renting business.
Roman is a born proofreader from a family of proofreaders, a real intellectual from St. Petersburg who comes to Narva-Jõesuu, a small Estonian spa town, to find inspiration, tranquility, and silence. He does proofreading of the encyclopedia of the Baltic Sea Fishes, compiled in the same location by Professor Polyanski, winner of the Nobel Prize. This work is very important for Roman. He would have accomplished his task, but once he swam too far in the sea. It was then that Helena came into his life, to change his ideas about the world forever.
The owner of the Lipuvere farm decides to marry his daughters off to wealthy suitors from the Mulgi County. However, the hearts of the girls already belong to local boys, with whom a plan is forged to get rid of the troublesome grooms.
Elo is visiting her family on a small island. Her complicated relationship with her mother is just about to warm up, when her half-sister’s pet rat Siisik takes its last breath. The family dinner is interrupted by the need to send Siisik on a last farewell. The mother’s apathy towards the death of the pet rat triggers Elo and opens up a gate to the past, when her own grief was left unnoticed.