Plot

Anna-Liisa of Kortesuo is engaged to Johannes of Kivimaa, but she is burdened by a heavy past. On the day of the announcement, Anna-Liisa confesses her crime in the presence of the party guests.

Anna-Liisa, the eldest daughter in the Kortesuo house, is engaged to Johannes of Kivimaa, who arrives to propose that their wedding take place the following Sunday and the wedding in three weeks' time. But Anna-Liisa is haunted by a memory from the past, which is brought to life when Husso, the mother of Mikko, the former Kortesuo workman, arrives to tell her that Mikko has become rich in the logging business and returns home to take Anna-Liisa as his wife. It is revealed that three years earlier, Anna-Liisa had an affair with Mikko, the child of which Anna-Liisa killed and buried in the woods with Husso's help.

When Mikko returns home and learns from his mother that Anna-Liisa is to marry Johannes, he appears in Kortesuo to claim her as his own: "I love you and want you back, even if death takes me." Anna-Liisa rejects Mikko, but cannot stop the rival from attacking Johannes: Mikko threatens with a knife and Johannes rushes into the barn to find a weapon, but the master of Kortesuo calms them down. As a last resort, Mikko calls his mother as a witness, revealing Anna-Liisa's secret to her parents and Johannes. His father threatens to kill Anna-Liisa, but Mikko manages to wrest the ax from her hand.

The announcement party is held anyway. At night, Anna-Liisa's younger sister Pirkko has strange dreams. Anna-Liisa stays up all night on the beach and tries to drown herself in the morning. Johannes, on the other hand, has spent the night in the forest and at the last minute manages to rescue Anna-Liisa, who is trying to rescue her dead child. The crowd gathers for a party, where Anna-Liisa, dressed in black, is fetched from her barn. In front of everyone, Anna-Liisa confesses her crime and assures the squire that her parents and everyone else are innocent: "Let me alone suffer the harshest punishment. I will gladly go to prison to be punished." "Go where your conscience tells you to go," says the vicar, comforting Anna-Liisa's parents: "She is walking the path of eternal life. Happy she is."