A minor official, Jonas Shatas, saved an apothecary who had fallen into the river. The whole city found out about it. Jonas felt like a hero. It seemed already close to the realization of a dream - marriage to the daughter of the boss. However, Jonas plan was not destined to come true. Having taken the chief, who was floundering merrily in the water, for a drowning man, Jonas decided to stun him before starting to rescue him.

The poor Melnik family lives in Zarasai region. Elder Mary parents struggle to send Marry to school but they did this anyway. The horizons of the girl, who until then had learned only from the old grandfather Peter, are spreading there, she, as if seeing herself in her place, tells the class about the legendary hero of Lithuanian history Grazina. Deprivation prevents Maryte from graduating, so she starts working in a candy factory where she hears political inferences. 1940, Vilnius is returned to Lithuania. Maryte, her best friend Elena and a group of young people in national costumes get ready to walk to the capital. In the periphery, the Bolsheviks remember the land of the rich, distribute it to the poor, and Mary dreams of continuing her studies and becoming a doctor. The dream is interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.