September 1923. The peasant uprising breaks out in Bulgaria. The village of action has remained largely unaffected by the stormy political events. The village mayor and the tax collector Rangel plot a provocation by means of which they hope to get rid of several inconvenient fellow-villagers. The peasant Nayden and his wife Lilyana return from the field. They stop in the village to buy a few things and Nayden stays behind in the pub. Rangel who fancies her follows Lilyana. Lilyana threatens to tell her husband. Driven by ambition and malice the tax collector stages an attack on the mayor's office that very evening. A police detachment led by the plain-clothes agent Kocho arrives from the town. He arrests Nayden and tortures him. Together with other detainees, he has to be taken to the town. Nayden's brother Momchil comes back from the army. He attempts to free his brother. Kocho wounds him. Momchil recovers and goes to the field to till the land. Lilyana brings him his lunch.