In search for the better life, three peasants Radovan, Jeremija and Gaša leave for a big city. Despite their expectations, there are many trials and temptations. Radovan manages to fit in by going to the evening school. The oldest of them, Jeremija, goes back to the village, while Gaša, after unreturned love, leaves to look for happiness somewhere else.

The mother of a national hero Nikoletina Bursac leads an imaginary conversation with the statue of her deceased son. We follow events from Nikoletina's life and war: his joining of the partisans together with his neighbor Jovica Jez, meeting with the small Jewish girl Erna who survived the slaughter of her village, constant quarrels and friendship with commander Pirgo and commissar Zlatko, meeting with Curetak and their unsuccessful love relationship.