After spending 13 years in prison, forty-year-old Đuka Begović returns to his ancestral home in Slavonia. He makes a promise to his mother that he will begin a new and honest life. He finds new meaning in taking care of his daughter Smilja. He tries to chase away destructive thoughts that threaten to overwhelm him by throwing himself into hard work. However, everything around him reminds him of his past and his family's tragic destiny. His family was wealthy at the beginning of the twentieth century, but was destroyed by the capitalist powers that took over the villages and broke the traditional family cooperatives.