This is a film about the moral and philosophical sides of the life and the art, about the complex relations between the artist and the rough rules of the time in which he lives.
A barrage balloon appears unexpectedly over a Bulgarian village during World War II. The startled villagers decide to knock it down with a fusillade yet the balloon flies off to the mountains. The villagers, armed to their teeth, set off after it. But they are not alone in this undertaking...
During the 1800s, Peru's government sends 2 envoys to negotiate peace with the rebellious Incas but a treasure-hunter bandit shoots the Inca ruler and his son, leaving the 2 envoys to take the blame for it.
Abundant supplies of imported vaccine prove ineffective against an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease epidemic in several population centers. Warehouse manager Rashkov has been found dead. Major Zahov has to investigate the case.
1197. King Kaloyan ascends the throne in hard times for Bulgaria. The country is still recovering from a century of Byzantine subjugation. He is forced to carry out a very flexible foreign policy in order to strength his positions. Pope Innocent III recognizes him as Emperor (Tsar), but a little later the fourth Crusade crosses the country under Emperor Baldwin. A new conflict is coming. Tsar Kaloyan wages the decisive battle at Adrianople and wins.
Captain Lipovanski is badly wounded during World War II. The Germans take him prisoner. After the end of the war, he is set free in a foreign country. He has been deceived that he was sentenced to death as a deserter and that his pregnant wife had died in a Bulgarian concentration camp. He trains for subversive activities against his own country. He is given the codename 'Golden Tooth'. Eager for revenge, he arrives in Bulgaria. There he learns that an agent provocateur has killed his wife, that his child is safe and has been raised in a nursery, and that he himself is respected as a hero. Golden Tooth sets out to eliminate his accomplices. With a file containing valuable documents, the traitors prepare their escape abroad. The spies are caught at the border. Golden Tooth kills the last of the traitors and dies driving his lorry into a precipice.
A geologist engineer Yuliya disappears. Ablamov, an elderly engineer, organizes a rescue party to look after her in the mine galleries but they find nothing. Yuliya was last seen at a ceremony for award-wining miners. The newsreel crew was filming the event. Yuliya left in the middle of ceremony. Prodanov, a headstrong and quarrelsome engineer, had followed her. Suspicion falls on him. However, the film sequences shot at the ceremony reveal that Ablamov reacted suspiciously to Yuliya's exit. Detected as the murderer, Ablamov attempts to cross the border but is caught. Yuliya had discovered that the ore contained uranium. Ablamov had replaced the samples in order to prevent the development of the uranium ore deposit.
Chased by the military police force, the partisans Boyka and Anton take refuge in a cave. A grenade explosion dislodges the rock, which seals off the passage.