Ilona (Kati Outinen) is the efficient maitre d’ in the elegant but soon to be obsolete restaurant Dubrovnik. Naturally, one misfortune attracts another, and she finds herself out of work at the same time as her tram-driver husband Lauri is. As her wistful gaze at the photograph of a child attests, the couple have endured tragedy before, but the hardship and humiliation of searching for work begin to take their toll on them. “A beautiful, melancholy work that all but restores humanism to contemporary cinema. Who but Kaurismäki could make a comedy about unemployment, and turn it into a soulful, transcendent statement about hope and survival?” (James Quandt).