Two sisters discover an abandoned infant in the forest and, unable to find his mother, have him baptized as Aleksander (Leksej) and adopted by their family. Enchanted by the itinerant violinist Jakob, Aleksander becomes his pupil, inherits Jakob’s violin on his deathbed, and despite being bound to hard shepherd duties and facing jealousy, persists in pursuing his musical gift.

In the revolutionary year of 1968, Stane is an active rebel student. Mojca is a freshman, has a boyfriend named Vid, whom she met at the carnival party. There she also met her later husband Stane. Vid leaves for military service, while Stane successfully avoids it. During the glorification of this event, Mojca and Stane come together intimately. Upon his return from the army, Vid discovers this love triangle. Stane and Mojca get married. The death of the child and the awareness that Stane is cheating on her, leads Mojca to divorce.

Breza, a country boy from a godforsaken Prekmurje village, wishes to perform at the village festivities playing his electric guitar, but is faced with fierce competition in the form of a traditional Roma band entertaining the villagers by playing popular folk music. Nevertheless, his music seems to be the key to the heart of Silvija, a village beauty and the daughter of a wealthy gastarbeiter from Switzerland, who was sent home to find a healthy Slovene husband. However, the story of Breza and Silvija only marks the beginning of the plot whose main character is actually Düplin, an eccentric outsider, a deaf-and-dumb tramp or, as Breza's mother, the old Popovka, a farm owner and a fortune-teller also referred to as Strina, called him "a lad from a citrus producing country".