Romania had it rough under its last communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, and things are even rougher now. Before, their problems were oppression and poverty. Now, their problem is mostly poverty - and plenty of it. In this grim comedy (to call it a black comedy would be to paint too perky a picture of it), Vasile (Gheorghe Dinica)has a wife whom he's fond of, and a mistress, whom he's fonder of. He manages a nearly abandoned movie theater, and makes just about nothing doing it. When his wife announces she's pregnant, he nearly goes frantic trying to find money to get her an abortion. However, what truly sends him over the edge is when his mistress decides to become a prostitute because, after all, the money is good. These two situations send him straight to the loony bin, and when he gets out, he discovers that his wife has rented their apartment to pornographic filmmakers, and guess who's starring in them?
A farm team-leader, Tudor, is accused for having failed the harvesting. Unhappy with what he considers an unfair verdict, he leaves the farm and moves to another village, getting a job as an ordinary worker in another farm. At first, he is upset by the very severe leader of that team, Mihai, but soon he discovers that his hard style is necessary to keep the work in good order and face all the problems. He also finds a bunch of great friends (the "Swell Guys" / "...baieti grozavi" in the title) and learns in what had consisted his own past mistakes. —Mihnea Columbeanu
After he fails to be accepted in college, Vali is questioned by police for participating in various thefts. He needs an alibi and he thinks the best one would be his father in Bucharest. To get there, he steals a motorcycle. In Bucharest he meets store clerk Anișoara, and he invites her to a seaside escapade. Their one day of love and future optimism is ended abruptly by a tragic motorcycle accident.
A harsh colonel of paratroopers neglects his family after falling in love with a chess player, the sister of one of his paratroopers that got injured because of the jumping punishment given by him.
