The life of King Béla IV's daughter is brought to life in the film. Blessed Margaret of the House of Árpád was raised from the age of nine in the monastery of the Domokos nuns on the island of Nyulak. In the neighbouring monastery live monks, among them Jancsi, the gardener's son, who is charmed by the little princess. The feeling of love gives him the cross and the adolescent boy becomes a monk among the "prisoners of God".

In 1905 Hungary, a young village woman has just undergone a marriage to the spoiled son of a man to whom her father is indebted, in order that the debt be cancelled, only to be spirited away by her true love, a young peasant, by whom she soon becomes pregnant. Together they attempt to find a way to buy up her father's debt and also pay for a divorce from her husband, against various odds.

The bells of the Calvinist church in Garabó have been silent for years, and people prefer to go the Rumanian church. Returning from his studies in Utrecht, Simándy Pál - at his own request - gets a job here, in the alpine village. The young Hungarian minister meets Florica, the educated daughter of Todorescu, the Rumanian pope, whom he knew before. She falls in love with him.

Pálma, the spoilt daughter of the rich manufacturer, is a true monster in the house. The house staff flee her and even her father can hardly wait to marry her off.

In the 1600s, Hungary is plundered by the Turks and the Laban. Kecskemét, the free royal city, is not exempt from this. Miska, the wily son of Lestyák, a master tailor, suggests to the town council that they should ask for a permanent beacon from Buda, thus protecting Kecskemét from the harassment of raiding troops. The town assembles its gift of jewellery, cloth and a beautiful girl, and Miska sets off for Buda. On the way, the young gypsy girl falls in love with Mishka, who elopes with her in a boy's dress. He can do this because instead of the bewitchment he hopes for, he is given only a fancy robe to protect the city. Little do they know at the time how much the robe is worth. Before its wearer, all true believers will crumble to dust and do his bidding.

Baracs Pista, engineer at the construction site of a railway line near the Korláthy estate, falls in love with Rolla, a countess disguised as a peasant girl. The count is giving a party as he wants the railway line to go across his lands.

Éva, the young, wild girl, the "wild rose", who was raised by her grandfather, Uncle Ábris, on the country estate, runs away from marriage to her father, the famous divorce lawyer Sándor Sziráky, in Budapest. In Budapest, Eva is welcomed by her kindly grandmother Clementine, who then becomes acquainted with her father's affairs with women. His secretary, Mária, is in love with Sziráky, but to make him jealous, she pretends to be his friend, Dr. Ámon. Mrs Tertayn, who is on the verge of divorce, is also vying for Sziráky. Éva springs into action, brings her father together with Maria after much complication, and finally finds happiness and peace of mind with Doctor Ámon.

After a heart attack, landowner Ferdinand Kerekházy summons his son Ferko Kerekházy from abroad, who, to his conservative father's dismay, sends a wagonload of machines ahead to set up an irrigation system and turn the saline, barely productive fields into fertile ones. The old count doesn't want to hear about his son's plans, and wants Ferko to marry Baroness Zólyomi. Since his son refuses, he disowns him. With persistent work, and the support of the mayor and a young engineer from Pest, the irrigation plan is realized. When the old count, who is always dreaming of grandchildren, realises that his son and the mayor's daughter have fallen in love, he reconciles with Ferko and asks her to marry him.