A Romanian architect who married abroad reunites with his birthplace, with those he met, with the women he loved, with the echoes of what happened once, with the great transformations that are taking place in the Capitol, on construction sites and in Romanian villages. Condemned by an incurable disease, but also overwhelmed by these realities and by the irrepressible longing for his homeland, the hero decides to return home for good.

In a Transylvanian village, a pastor tries to convert a local peasant to his religion, for personal interests.

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.

In 1930s Romania, a desperate gambler exploits an elderly man for casino luck, an act that triggers his own severe psychological undoing. Consumed by madness, he transfers his obsession to a painting that resembles his mother and forces his girlfriend to physically mimic the portrait, driving her to a suicide attempt. As she is committed to a sanatorium, his deranged mind completely detaches from reality against the backdrop of a decaying, pre-war fascist society.