Leena Vanhamäki

Like good soldiers in a war-zone, hospital staff are expected to respect the chain of command when dealing with life and death situations. But what happens when smug doctors, arrogant surgeons, and out-of-touch administrators make that easier said than done? Nurses deals with the professional and personal lives of four female colleagues who cope in different ways with the challenges of life on the trauma ward. With determination, strength, and a dark sense of humor, they achieve the demanding and inspiring task of saving lives in a system that sometimes seems designed to do the opposite.

In a multicultural suburb of Helsinki, a bullied Russian immigrant decides to fight back, a young woman dreams of superstardom at any cost, and a junkie couple schemes their way out of debt.

When carefree, young Lenni and his girlfriend find themselves expecting a child, he ends up looking for a role model in all the wrong places as he becomes involved with local right-wing activists.

Detective sergeant Timo Harjunpää of the Helsinki Violent Crime Unit loses his daughter in a tragic way. Despite the support of his closest colleague, Constable Onerva Nykänen, Harjunpää is unable to recover from the loss of his family. He seeks revenge against his daughter's killer, while in his work he investigates strange deaths in the Helsinki metro that turn out to be the work of a serial killer.

The Angry Hamster is a short story about Tomi, a socially excluded man who lives with his mother. The young man's dauntingly routine everyday life is interrupted when his mother takes Tomi to town to celebrate his 23rd birthday. Tomi, who makes laconically analytical observations in his mind, is forced by a new situation to face his own feelings and prejudices about the world. Is life just a total misery, or is it not, after all? Perhaps the twisted world straightens out if you look at it from an even more twisted angle.