It is about difficult times in Croatian family in Istria under Italian rule and the beginning of Italian fascism.
A young female student of music finds herself in a Dalmatian town in order to practice organo playing in the local church, and there she falls in love with a timid young man who helps her with it.
Through Šimun’s conflict with the head of the new agricultural cooperative, where he is forced to work in order to feed his family, the changes that land reclamation has brought to everyday life in the Neretva Valley are depicted, destroying the traditional way of life.
