The young speedway rider wants to represent the country in the world championship. However, the coaches choose another player.

Michal Tarkovsky's twenty-minute etude begins with a long monologue in which we hear overlapping voices recorded from television. The magma of sounds appears against a background of blackness that lasts for more than a minute on the screen. We then observe a series of images ripped from the television set. Out of the chaos emerges information about the Highland Academy, which has resumed its activities. The theme of the session will be measuring the world. The bicentennial of the first balloon flight will also be celebrated, with the Montgolfier brothers as guests of honor.

The story begins in March of 1968, the days of students protests. A hot- headed student protests the Dean's decision to expell a fellow student on fake accusation charges, upon which he drops out of university rather than make a compromise. He loses everything in the process: his girlfriend, housing privileges - he becomes a coal deliverer. On the job he witnesses an accident that causes death of a fellow worker. He decides to write a story, which is good and a publishing house wants to print it, but only after some corrections are made. He refuses again and the story is not printed. Finally, a story is commercialized and made into a succesful film and brings fame to the original author.

A well-regarded engineer in a big enterprise is hounded by trumped up attacks on his integrity when he delves too deeply into how bonuses are handled by the management. He gets into an argument with the guard, is arrested and subsequently fired. An old friend, a journalist, tries to sort things out but the victim's stubbornness and past problems with his wife lead to lossess by both.