After Alexandra's mother leaves on a business trip for a longer period of time, the 9-year-old girl and her father are forced to fend for themselves. But everything goes wrong, the house ends up empty and the school and work schedules are disrupted. Gradually, however, the father and little girl, who are not without goodwill, learn what order and discipline are.

In the 1950s, a party activist travels to rural Transylvania to collec collectivize village farms. A wealthy householder resists attempts to make him give up his wealth, refusing to be brought down to the level of those who have never worked. The concept of collectivization is summed up by an indignant villager who, forced to work the land he no longer owns, bombards the party activist who claims that the land is still his: "You cut off my p..., put it in my hand and said, 'take it, it's still yours'.