The poor little Ferkó is trying to enrich his miserable life with imaginary fairy tale figures and superstitious little stories. He suffers from diphtheria, and while he is having a visionary dream, Cinkekirály (Titmouse King) saves him from the claws of the magic Küsmödi. He expects his magic jacket to enable him to know everything at school without having studied.

Transylvania during the reign of the great prince Mihály Apafi I. The Turk asks Prince Apafi for another tribute, and the Prince sends him two hundred gold pieces with Kristoff Szitáry. His two sons accompanied him halfway. On the way, they stop at the house of the caliph Pisliczar and spend the night there, and in the morning only Kristóf Szitáry continues his journey to Oradea. The Pasha is happy to receive him, but as soon as he opens the bags of money, stones and pieces of horseshoe fall out.

During the siege of Budapest, the nine-year-old Ambrus is taken to the country, to his grandparents. His everyday life is determined by nightmares, the tough country life, the anguish caused by the aircraft noise. Overhearing a conversation one night he learns that his parents were killed by a bomb.