After Stipe Zvonarov returned from the Austro-Hungarian army to his Slavic village, he found his wife Mara and mother. Women rightly expect Stipe to accept rural jobs, but he can no longer accept the monotony and restrictions of rural life.

An old couple who live in a remote village lose touch with their children who live in the city and who are too busy to visit them. In order to get their attention, they get divorced...

At the end of 1991, a prisoner Ivan escapes from Serbian camp. He finds a hideout in the property of a wealthy Serbian landowner Stevan, who eventually finds him and offers him two choices - to submit him to the authorities, or to make Ivan work for him. Ivan accepts the latter and while staying on the farm he gradually introduces the landowner's deranged family. He also meets his daughter-in-law Anica, a beautiful Croatian woman married to landowner's bloodthirsty son who fights in Croatia. A secret love affair is being developed between the two Croats.

After returning from the Eastern Front to their small Croatian village as veterans of the First World War, Jovan Stanisavljević (nicknamed Čaruga) and his comrade known only as Mali join forces with the gang led by a local bandit and communist revolutionary Boža The Red. After Boža is brutally murdered by law enforcement officials, Čaruga takes over as the gang's leader, turning them into a bloodthirsty troop that won't take no for an answer.