In 1905 Hungary, a young village woman has just undergone a marriage to the spoiled son of a man to whom her father is indebted, in order that the debt be cancelled, only to be spirited away by her true love, a young peasant, by whom she soon becomes pregnant. Together they attempt to find a way to buy up her father's debt and also pay for a divorce from her husband, against various odds.

March 15, 1848; the revolution breaks out in the town of Pest. Yet at café Pilvax, in among he revolutionary youth, there is the informer of the imperial court as well. Hearing the news of the attack led by Jellasics, the inhabitants of the villages pour into the national army, and Hajdú Gyurka also escapes from his landlord. Petőfi is there at the camp of the revolutionaries, raising them to enthusiasm with his poetry.

Marci is drafted from a typical block building in the 6th district in Pest. He says good-bye to Juli living in the same house, with whom they are both very much fond of each other, but neither of them makes a confession. Juli works in a factory, and with her friend Gizus she goes out in the evening for dancing and drinking. After a year, Marci comes back for holiday, he is full of love.

Pista Rácz, bearer of the title "outstanding workman" is opposed to all forms of sport, and is especially antagonized by Jóska Teleki, a first-class sportsman, who seems to be a drawback for Rácz's brigade in terms of work quantity performance figures.

Lint and his lover are sailing and making fun absent-mindedly at Lake Balaton when the anchor suddenly gets stuck in a bomb in the mud. Lint gets hurt while fussing about under the water. A strong storm breaks out when they reach the shore. In the local restaurant the man recalls his memories of war.

In 1956, a crusading newspaper reporter covers the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Initially critical of the communists, the feature later espouses the virtues of social changes implemented since the invasion.

Three people – a returned prisoner of war, his beautiful second wife, and the possessive, hunchbacked spinster who is his sister-in-law by his first marriage – are isolated in a little house under an extinct volcano, where each strives for personal happiness but is suffocated by their dependence on the others.