In 1943 in a Romanian fishing village on the river Danube brothers Pavel and Simion compete for the love of Lia while the war is raging on.

During the 18th century when Moldavian Prince Dimitrie Cantemir writes The History of the Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire the manuscript is stolen and offered to the highest bidder.

Lișcă is a woman who awaits the return of her husband from war, only he is long overdue. Many callers come, yet she holds on to the hope her husband will return.

Vulpașin is desperatley in love with Nastasia, but she is partial to Luca, which works at a factory outside the slum they live in ("accros the lifting gate").

Octavian Borcea, a middle aged peasant, goes through a social crisis when he decides to re-marry with a widower. He visits all his 5 children, then he returns in the village, where he burned his bridges.