The action of the film takes place during the years after the war in a small Rumanian village. In this arid hilly area, where famine ravaged the population and the lack of rain mined all the crops, Prisacaru, an old overseer, enriched by the war, returns to settle in the village. The money he has made has a strong effect on the ignonani and superstitious villagers; to them, he is the possessor of a treasure hidden in a secret hiding place. Bent on making a quick fortune, he slarts cul­tivating a piece of land, but his super-human efforts cannot yield a crop for sale on the black market in the city. In his free time, he is not above a bit of seduction amongst the village women — hut the villagers' patience does not last forever . . .