Jozef Mak is illegitimate child of poor widow. He constantly withstands oppression of brother, village people and various wounds of fate. Despite of difficulties of the life, he moves on as resilient as the social class he represents.

Slovakia, on the eve of the outbreak of World War II. The family of the young Jewish Martin Friedmann gathers to celebrate his bar mitzvah and make a solemn promise that they will all meet again a year later around the same table; but the storms of war and anti-Semitic fanaticism will lead each of them down very different paths.