Károly Sinka

In 1950, when a young communist director arrives to take charge of a stud farm, his efforts to draw on the experience of the old hands there meet with little success. Indeed, so outraged are they at the changeover to communism that they harass him at every turn, especially after he treats a local barmaid as if she were a whore of some kind. After administering a beating to him, the old hands are nonetheless incensed when he calls on the police. The director doesn't get enough help, however, because the stable hands stab him before running off for the border.

The action of the movie unfolds on two levels. On the one hand, the shepherds, displaced by the abuses of the Habsburg powers, are living in "the country". Here they run into other troubles, with the demands of the Phanariot authorities. At the same time, the action unfolds in the village deserted by people and flocks, left at home and obsessed with getting rich, Pastor Nicolae Branga gives in to the temptations of the Viennese domination and, betraying his fellow countrymen, becomes mayor. He gets rich "overnight", playing into the hands of potentates on both sides of the border. In need of wool and meat, the emperors hatch a devious plan. Promising him the title of "nemes" (lord), they corrupt Branga and, with worthless documents, try to persuade the villagers to return to their homes, and then declare them "serfs", seizing all their wealth.

In 18th century Hapsburg ruled Transilvania the Romanian shepherds from the village of Vlașini face the oppression and injustice of imperial authorities, being forced to flee from their place of birth or pay tribute to the Germans of Hermannstadt for grazing sheep on their own pastures.