Young playboy Pál Milkó, nephew of the mill’s powerful CEO, insults and even strikes the company’s venerable accountant, Andor Virág, who quits in anger. To make amends, Pál rents a room in Virág’s home, avoids the old man but courts his beautiful daughter, soon hopelessly falling in love.
The protagonist of the story is Flora, a teacher who wants to teach in the village, in accordance with her vocation and her oath. Her beauty and purity bring her into conflict with the local authorities and with the landowning family of the countryside. Aware of her truth, she defies them, but can only count on the sympathy of the old priest. István Nagy Jr., the idle, dissolute landowner's son, falls in love with Flóra, and love changes him: he takes her side, exposing the lecherous hypocrites.
