Based on the story of the same name by Marin Preda. The movie tells about the struggle of poor peasants against the rural rich for the creation of collective farming.

On the Danube Plain, several pupils, mobilized by the example of a pioneer, adopt an exemplary school and social conduct and impose it on the undisciplined.

The film shows that Romanian peasants were divided between those opposing and those embracing collectivization. The heated debates between the pro and con camps would ultimately lead to murder.