The 12-year-old Aneta and Boy feel that there is something like a first love between them. The kids are traveling to the countryside together. They get to two of Aneta's grandparents - one of her grandmothers was married three times. Aneta's favorite grandfather is her grandmother's third husband. He is not her real grandfather, but she loves him because he likes to fantasize. He taught Aneta a magic game - to light a match and imagine anything in flame. Her favorite grandfather dies. Aneta mourns him for a long time, lights matches but no use.
In a provincial town comes Elena -young actress. Soon she meets Ivan, who is the same age as her and who works at the construction site. In order to be a part of her world he agrees to pay as stand-in for a movie in which she has a small role. During the premiere, the actor gets all the fame and the stand-in stay unnoticed.
Maria is having great difficulty getting on with her parents because of their blind, consumerist approach to life. Traumatized by continuous family dramas, having experienced the disappointments of firs love, Maria decides to go up the mountain to a holiday home. There she meets a conceited architect, a shy teacher, a jurist, and a timid journalist (all of them representatives of the intelligentsia) who are domineered by the manager of the holiday home and his 'problems'. Maria's resignation changes into a rebellion against impersonal submission and sheep-like compliance with those who hold power.
Boev, an enthusiastic form master, is trying hard to establish rapport with his final-year students. His frankness, buoyancy and good nature soon make him a universal favorite. The only one who does not approve of him is headmaster who loves his job, but is not aware of how dated his own views are and cannot understand the young teacher. Apart from this, Boev comes in into particularly sharp conflict with his colleague and childhood chum Kiril who is consumed by jealousy and the ambition to get promoted quickly.
Stefan and Tanya arrive in a miners' settlement. They register as a married couple at the hostel, but Tanya admits to the house managers that Stefan has a wife but has started divorce procedure. The two have fled from the scandal. Stefan starts work at the mine and she waits for him in the hostel with little to do. Her mother arrives. Unable to swallow the humiliation of having been rejected by Tanya's family, Stefan gets drunk. When he comes back, he starts a row and has to be restrained. Stefan takes offense, leaves the mine, parts with Tanya, and becomes a waiter in the pub. Soon he obtains a divorce. He wants to take Tanya back to his native town. She refuses to give up her new friends and the steady job she has found. Stefan sets out alone. At the very last moment, he jumps from the bus...
