In a castle, the General and Bálint gathered boys for a strange training. They want to select the most capable of them for the big operation. The choice falls on the Son, who must pass the final test before his mission. He will be beaten, but he cannot reveal the name of his handler. The Boy is not broken during the beating, but afterwards he falls into apathy, refusing to leave his room. Teresa talks to him emotionally, threateningly, logically - but to no avail. When she tells him that he will not get up, he gives her a cruel order...

In the story, Ivan Baracs seeks revenge by shaming his noble friends. He dresses his groom, Misha, in a tailscoat and introduces him into society as Count Tasziló. Mishka's fiancée, Marchesa, the dishwasher girl with the palms of her hands, becomes Countess Mary... The interesting thing about Mishka the Magician is that it is one of the rare pieces of operetta literature in which the dancer-comedian and the sub-radio play the leading roles.

The relationship of István Kozár and his wife has reached the point where neither is prepared to hear even a single word from the other. The woman travels to the countryside because she needs a little time by herself. The next morning the police inform the man that his wife has died. István, who has fantasized on more than one occasion about strangling the woman, soon finds himself being investigated by detectives who expect a confession from him.

Hungary, 1950s. József Pelikán, who works as a dam keeper on the Danube, meets by chance Zoltán Dániel, an old friend whom he saved from death years before and who is now a powerful politician.

At a dusty crossroads in the Soviet Union villagers surrender their possessions - a horse, a samovar, a goat - to the state. The train which takes them away brings to the village a physically and mentally handicapped woman, barely able to speak. She makes herself bracelets of burrs and studies herself in a cracked and cloudy mirror. Befriended by very few, teased and tormented by many she seeks protection at a huge portrait of Stalin.

Kalán Imre, the district doctor lives in a small village surrounded by mountains. One day he is visited by two young relatives of his and their friend, a doctor at the beginning of his career. The name of the doctor is Király András, and he happens to be the great love of Kalán's young wife from her unmarried years. The orthodox Stalinist Kalán's entire life is filled with his great passion, hunting. The suffocating, narrow lives of the prominent people in the area are slowly revealed to András.