Two friends from their student years are dating. One of them is the director of a peasant school, and the other is an impresario in show business. Memories bring them back to their youth. What have they lost and what have they kept over the years? These questions are answered by the heroes at dawn, after a stormy night.

Rado, an orphan from a poor Sofia neighborhood, has been in and out of school for troubled youth for years. Although he is approaching adulthood, he is yet to finish 8th grade. He cannot reconcile his pride and sense of justice with the kind of education provided by people who are deprived of sensibility and human warmth. Rado asserts his right to freedom by frequently running away. During one of his escapes he meets the love of his life, Albena. She is a good student, and comes from a well-educated, sophisticated family. This new and unexpected connection intensifies Rado's desire for freedom and independence, and leads them both into uncharted territory.

Elka has a family and a house in the village, but she dreams of living in the city. To get an apartment, she gives a bribe to Maria. Maria is an honest woman. But she is forced to take a bribe to deliver medicine to her sick father. Elka became the cause of the degradation of an honest woman.