A Romanian village in the 50s. Năiţă Lucean, a cunning and stubborn peasant, opposes the collectivization process using all possible artifice. He instinctively feels that signing his land and cattle over to the state can only bring bad times for him. His only certainty is the ownership of this insufficient and barren plot of land. Although he strongly opposes it, the idea of the collective good is forcibly enforced.