Year 1945. The second World War is over and the soldiers from the disbanded army are returning home. Yet there is still no sign of Joze Malek.
Some years before WWI, art historian and priest Ciril from Ljubljana and his friend Fritz set out on a journey through Italy. Ciril hopes that his doctorate on Italian art would provide him inner peace, thus starting a new life. Emotionally disturbed Fritz, on the other hand, tries to escape everyday life, as well as from commitment he has to his female friend.
As she tries to cope with the changes in Yugoslav rural life brought about by increasing modernization, the Widow Karolina wishes she had become a mother. As difficult as things are for her, they are nonetheless much more difficult for her more-conservative and less-thoughtful neighbors.
