A young woman, Aina, and her elderly mother live together with two other women boarders. On a snowy, windy winter's day, Aina and her mother are sitting together on their bed in their home, not doing much at all besides observing the weather distantly. The doorbell rings and Aina gets up to answer it, finding a beautiful Swedish girl with a red hat on bright red cheeks. Aina yells back to her mother, telling her that the agency has sent them a kulla rather than a typical maid. Aina walks into the kitchen where the kulla has gone to lay out her things. SHe has only a carpetbag with very few possessions in it, but she seems eternally happy and ready to serve the women. She praises their kitchen and begins immediately serving them, bringing coffee and covering Ma's legs with her own coat. The next months she continues cleaning and serving the women, always with her presence of joy and gratitude. When May comes, the Kulla takes her Spring bath, a tradition from her village in Sweden, Noret, that she takes very seriously. After bathing, Kulla longs for a man like the men from her hometown, to lay her head upon his chest and have to celebrate Spring. Soon after, she meets just a man, and they dance and become lovers. Every night, the strong sailor Kulla met comes and they make love in the room across the hall from Aina and her mother's, where the Kulla stays. By late summer, the Kulla is visibly pregnant, her belly swelling more and more each day. During this time, Aina decides she must learn to work as teh kulla does, with constant joy and gratitude, and that she must move to a smaller place with her mother so that they can take care of themselves without Kulla's help. In late August, the Kulla prepares her bags to leave. Aina and the Kulla embrace and depart on good terms, as Aina watches the Kulla walking down the street alone with only her carpet bag by her side, smiling as the wind blows her skirt behind her.