On the road one day two people meet again after seventeen years. They'd had a brief, burning affair seventeen years earlier, in their idealistic youth. That had been just after the war, the time of great enthusiasms and faith in the future. Wishing to dedicate themselves to the new society they had chosen to renounced personal happiness, considering their love as an impermissible sidetrack from the requirements of the time.
Chavdar gets a degree in geology. He wishes to pursue a scientific carrier, but his father decides that his son should practice his profession in a rich of mineral Rhodopa Mountain. Chavdar meets geologists and locals who love their profession and the region. Here he finds true love with Vanya, a girl born and raised in the mountain. She is a part time geologist student and dreams of finding new ore sources. Chavdar has to leave, and he bids farewell to his friends, certain that one day he will come back to continue his search.
The beginning of the 20th century. The young Nona comes back to her father's farm from Switzerland. She meets colonel Galchev. The officer expresses his love for her. The teacher Yosif who is in love with Nona organizes a revolt of the villagers with no property. Armed villagers rob the farm. Galchev and his soldiers arrive. During the shooting, the colonel is killed. Nona accuses Yosif of Galchev's death. The carriage of Nona's fiancé, who travels from Switzerland to the village, passes by the coffin with Galchev's body. A second after the fiancé enters her house Nona kills herself.
