本片是导演扬•特洛尔1971年的名作《大移民》的续篇,两部电影均改编自Vilhelm Moberg的The Emigrants系列小说。本片取材此系列的后两部小说,The Settlers 和The Last Letter Home,讲述一批瑞典移民在19世纪中期的明尼苏达州建造家园的故事This film continues from where Utvandrarna (1971) left off. Starting a new life in the New World from almost nothing is not easy. The winters and summers are more extreme than in the Old World. But the immigrants are rewarded for their hard work. They now live a better life than they did in Sweden. Bad times also come, however. The civil war starts and the Sioux Indians make a bloody uprising against the white settlers. Karl-Oskar's family survives all these. His brother, Robert, decides to seek his fortune in the gold fields of California. He never reaches California but acquires some fortune from his boss who dies of yellow fever on the way to the gold fields. An immigrant Swede dupes him of this fortune. Robert returns to his brother where he dies from a disease contracted on the trip. Kristina, whose thoughts never leave Sweden, has several more births and gets pregnant again against the advice of her doctor. This last pregnancy kills her. The children grow up and take over the farm. Karl-Oskar becomes old and lonely. He spends his last days dreaming of his youth in the Old World.