家族的颓败由感情的荒芜开始。五十八岁的唐安德斯是贵族末裔，读了一辈子书却活得毫不起劲，直至找来十七岁农女艾丝蒂拉照顾年迈祖母，心底暗涌再抑压不住。当艾丝蒂拉结识了一名工人阶级少年后，一座死火山终于爆发，不惜将一切淹没。
扬西和卡达是一对青梅竹马恋人，1956年的布达佩斯之春遭到镇压后，卡达流亡海外。很多年后，扬西前往法国里昂跟她会面。影片通过他在火车上的回忆，闪回到童年的无忧无虑、情窦初开的日子、二战的隆隆炮火，以及遭苏联军队镇压的积怨。

Jancsi Oláh is in the transitional phase between adolescence and adultness. He is born in 1938, and is now getting his first employment as an electronic engineer. On some TV-screens he happens to see a young lawyer, Éva Halk, who arrests his attention. In his imagination she is the most interesting woman he ever saw. Jansci is part of a closely knit gang of young engineers. They see the older engineers as mediocre, and have grand ideas about developing new inventions together. With changing living conditions the five friends start to grow apart. At a party Jancsi suddenly meets Éva Halk. They fall in love, and find common memories in the engagement in The Pioneer Railway at the age of 12. Both of them also chose to stay in Hungary in '56, when many of their friends fled the country. The sudden death of the gang member Laci in leukemia is a hard blow for them all. The fear of death grabs Éva and Jancsi. They start seeing each other as obstacles to their own development, and drift apart.

Zoltan Huszárik graduation of the grotesque as an aesthetic quality, excellent film portrayal. Tells the story of an "artist" who made a pre-planned suicide but fails. The true purpose of preparing vizsgafilm but only for the degree

匈牙利电视电影，基于罗佐夫的剧本