Finland, 1905: Andreas Bengstrom lives his early teenage years trapped in a country violently and inevitably swirling toward revolutions: the Finnish civil war, World War I, and the Russian Revolution. When his father is killed in a tugboat accident, his penniless mother moves the family to Helsingfors to try to escape poverty. The cafe that she runs becomes the gathering place for Russian exiles, and the flames of revolution creep ever closer. His older brother Nils chooses to fight by joining the Red Guard; Andreas finds his freedom by running, literally, and by attempting to evade explosive situations that threaten his life: the first is a random shooting in which he is wounded, the second is a mass slaughter of protesters by violent Cossacks, and a third is his being trapped in the middle of a gun battle between Reds and Whites. He learns that the exiles' plans are being reported to the Tsarist supporters by a spy, a young schoolmate of his, creating a moral dilemma between friendship and country. He meets and falls in love with the sister of one of his running teammates, and that joy is doubled when he races against a young boy named Paavo Nurmi who becomes a close friend and moral model. But his girlfriend's father's shop is blown up, his childhood friend is assassinated, and dark, ominous figures race after him through the chilling night-time streets of Helsingfors. Each violent action by one side is met by equally violent retaliation, gradually increasing tension and danger for everyone. Although Nils sees freedom as victory over oppressors, for Andreas it lies in the quixotic dream that some day a miracle letter will arrive from his successful uncle in America and he will be able to cross the ocean to freedom. His sister and his girlfriend are sent to safety in Sweden, his brother thrives in the exciting and extremely dangerous life of a rebel, and Andreas loses his best friend as he tries to understand why such catastrophic turmoil has seized the country. Even the shabby cafe is firebombed, killing two of the exiles. When the saving letter does come, the joy of the opportunity to sail to America is immediately crushed by the torpedoing of the ship that was to carry them, the Lusitania. However, an official of Cunard Lines who is also Andreas's running coach, helps them find another passage, just as the hotel where Andreas worked as a bell boy explodes into rubble, and Nils is pursued and cornered by four Loyalists. Eventually his mother and he leave the city, but Andreas is separated from his girlfriend; from Paavo, his running friend; from his brother Nils; and he carries with him the memories of his friend who was shot for thinking he was aiding a cause."