This is a sensitive film about human solidarity filled with humor and poetry; a bedridden man regales a child with a story about pirates while asking him to fetch some "pills".
In 1944 Bulgaria switches sides and joins the war against Germany. The story focuses on the advance of the Bulgarian army through Yugoslavia and Hungary, as well as its internal struggles.
In 1945, on the battlefields in Hungary, three Bulgarian soldiers from the reserve have to fight for the liberation of the country. They are totally unprepared for the war and have no desire to take part in the battles. The three reservists are the sad sight and initially their commander wants to send them back to Bulgaria. But their attitude is changed after the witnessed tragedies. Without knowing it, they all turn into heroes.
During World War II, a plane transfers Bulgarian antifascists from the USSR to Bulgaria. They jump with parachutes. The eighth paratrooper heads a guerilla group. In the group, there are doubts about the existence of a traitor. Initially, an innocent person is accused, but later the real traitor is caught and killed. Still, the most dangerous enemies of the guerillas are the colonel and the troops stationed in the nearby village. The battle between them and the guerillas is won by the latter who continue to fight for their cause.
A young boy (I. Spassov) gets his hand caught in a bridge beam on a hot summer day in this straightforward drama. As the water level rises in the river, people band together to try and save the boy before he drowns. He is comforted by his mother (G. Vachtov) and an army general (P. Slobokov), and the latter calls out the troops to save the lad from liquidation. This feature was the official Bulgarian entry at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival and is devoid of the usual 1960s propaganda associated with countries from the Eastern block of Europe.
Stationed in a secluded Bulgarian village in 1943, Walter - a German Wehrmacht sergeant and artist - lives in almost idyllic distance from the war. Then a transit camp is set up for Jews arriving from Greece. When Ruth, one of the internees, asks Walter to help a pregnant woman, the two form an unlikely bond.
