Baracs Pista, engineer at the construction site of a railway line near the Korláthy estate, falls in love with Rolla, a countess disguised as a peasant girl. The count is giving a party as he wants the railway line to go across his lands.
In 1905 Hungary, a young village woman has just undergone a marriage to the spoiled son of a man to whom her father is indebted, in order that the debt be cancelled, only to be spirited away by her true love, a young peasant, by whom she soon becomes pregnant. Together they attempt to find a way to buy up her father's debt and also pay for a divorce from her husband, against various odds.
Pálma, the spoilt daughter of the rich manufacturer, is a true monster in the house. The house staff flee her and even her father can hardly wait to marry her off.
The bells of the Calvinist church in Garabó have been silent for years, and people prefer to go the Rumanian church. Returning from his studies in Utrecht, Simándy Pál - at his own request - gets a job here, in the alpine village. The young Hungarian minister meets Florica, the educated daughter of Todorescu, the Rumanian pope, whom he knew before. She falls in love with him.
