At the seafront garden, the members of The Worker's Youth Union and the members of fascist organization are fighting. Absorbed in their feelings Vladko and Aneto have nothing to do with those events. Things at Aneto's big wealthy home look very different from Vladko's small house huddled in the yard. Kiril, Vladko's elder brother, is anxious about Vladko who should have been at the rally, but is writing poetry instead. Aneto and Vladko are happily dancing at the school-leavers' ball. Kiril has killed a German officer. The ball breaks out. Aneto has disappeared in the confusion. Vladko goes to look after her. A group of people armed with clubs and knuckle-dusters beat him cruelly because he is Kiril's brother. Kiril has joined the partisans. Vladko is seriously ill and dies. Kiril and his comrades continue the struggle.

Dr Ganevski leaves his wife Maria and his grown-up children Rositza and Chavdar for Dr Troyanovska, who has been widowed by the war. Her son, Angel, a school dropout, is in love with Rositza. Rositza renounces her father. Up to a point, Chavdar can understand Ganevski's decision. Hoping to live in affluence, the boy moves in with his father's new family. Dr Ganevski cannot bring himself to visit his daughter who is ill with the pneumonia. On his birthday, which he celebrates at his father's, Chavdar feels terribly lonely and leaves him.