Um jovem procurador vê ser-lhe atribuído um caso que envolve um colega e que pode determinar a sua carreira, mas cedo começa a questionar os motivos da acusação.
In the Free Theater (Teatrul Liber) of Bucharest, the actors and crew prepare a new show, with the play "Disguise" ("Travesti"). After the opening night, which is only partly successful, they reach the conclusion that, along the years, they came to the mistake of also disguising this true feelings, becoming hypocrites, and this has a negative effect to their stage performances too.
In 1462 the Ottoman Turks displeased with Wallachian Prince Vlad the Impaler plot to overthrow and replace him with puppet ruler Prince Radu the Handsome.
Around the nationalization in 1948, a worker's daughter, as a student, is attracted by the social life offered by a breed horse owner. The relationship will sour by the cruelty with which he kills the horses, rather then give them away.
The film presents the drama of a proud man, full of himself, proud of his physical and intellectual qualities. Palaloga, whose life had been an uninterrupted succession of gallant, professional and spiritual successes, finds out at one point that he is seriously ill and is approaching death. In full dying delirium, almost like a confession, he realizes that his life until then was just an empty lie, in which he never lived something true, pure and beautiful and asks an imaginary Mephistopheles to give him another month of life, because in the meantime to achieve something great to stay after him…
