Architect, urban planner, and furniture designer Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) is considered the “father of modernism” in Finland. Beginning in the mid-1920s, he and his first wife Aino (1894-1949), and later second wife Elissa (1922-1994), exerted a lasting effect on the concept of design. Influenced equally by Bauhaus and classic Italian architecture, and travelling in the same circles as avant-gardists such as Le Corbusier and László Moholy-Nagy, they set new standards in many design fields. They were as likely to design a patient-friendly sanatorium building as the Paimio chair, made of wood and leather, which became an export favourite alongside the Aalto vase with its signature wavy form, an allusion to its creator’s name (aalto = wave). With pictures and testimony from international experts, this documentary examines the life and work of the man and his wives, whose revolutionary designs influence the field even today, far beyond the borders of Finland.