Salatut elämät's main focus is the fictional street Pihlajakatu, located in Ullanlinna, Helsinki. Other locations include a high school, a hospital, Café Moose and an inn, Amanda, which contains the hotel, a restaurant and a gym Amadeus. R-Kioski, a corner shop owned by Ismo Laitela, is also one of the main settings. Former "main café" was Kentauri which, however, exploded during a wedding celebration in the season finale of the 11th season.
The series has dealt with subjects such as abortion, drug abuse, alcoholism, homosexuality, incest, animal rights, religious fanaticism, gambling addiction, teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, cancer, eating disorder, school bullying, narcissistic personality disorder and its effects to the family, the search of biological parents, stealing and racism, and therefore caused public debate.

Ville, 25, is a downbeat former child star who's successfully avoided his womanizing rock 'n' roll dad for years. Everything changes when his dad moves into his flat and they both fall in love with the same American line-dancing teacher.

Pete is a football enthusiast, who plays as a goalkeeper for FC HeMan, a team playing in the lowest possible league. His girlfriend, Anna, hates the whole sport. Pete and his teammates are planning to travel to watch the Football World Cup held in Germany. Anna is not excited about Pete's plan to leave her alone for the summer. Therefore Anna decides to present a challenge to Pete: She will form a team from the wives and girlfriends of the FC HeMan players, and then the women's team (FC Venus) would play against FC HeMan. If the women's team wins, the men will have to give up football, and if the men's team wins, the women will never complain about their hobby.