Hilda Granström runs a ladies' tailoring shop. Her husband Richard is a cellist in the Opera Orchestra. Their three daughters help out in Hilda's shop. Richard's 80-year-old mother, who once was a dancer, also lives with the family.

Farmer Mårten Esbjörnsson has three adult sons who all want to find a wife to marry. However, all the young women of the neighborhood seem to be less than perfect.

Eva is a very talented and able college girl. In the summer she is going to work at a farm. There she meets a different world of unwanted children, desires and temporary relationships.

In the legend of Susanna in Babylon she was highly desired by the old men. In this movie, Susanna the beautiful lives in a Swedish town in the 19th century.