In a small provincial town everything goes well, apart from sports activities. The local soccer team is on the verge of relegation. But the ones responsible with the team are ready to do "everything for soccer", even match-fixing.

In 1919, young Doctor Poenaru is sent to be the director at a country hospital. On his way there he meets a formar army comrade, now a lawyer. An ideological and philosophical dispute ensues, the two following different paths in life.

After refusing to compromise at his job, a university professor leaves the city and returns to his native village for the first time in many years.

Fifteen years later, Viișoara has not changed much: the shepherd remains the same lonely character, Varvara the same energetic woman caught in complicated administrative tasks, Toderaș with his palinca hidden in the barn and his fading authority, elders wise and active, young people enthusiastic—but not all of them.