The director, with his usual bittersweet style, began to present a slice of the regime change, using the original diary of the Petőfi Socialist Brigade in Szentes. The film focuses on community cohesion, survival and creative solutions in the era of the deficit economy and socialist planned economy, aiming to not only delve into the past, but also to appeal to the younger generation with its humour and to show them the sometimes burlesque-like everyday life of the 1970s and 1980s.
Set in 19th century Vienna, Ignac Semmelweis, a short-tempered but passionate doctor, delivers babies and carries out autopsies on a daily basis while looking for the cause of puerperal fever, the mysterious epidemic that decimates patients in the hospital.
Zsófi, a rebellious teenager, lives in a tiny flat with her little sister, Mesi, and her unstable mother, Bea. Zsófi discovers late that she is pregnant and decides to give up her baby through open adoption to an infertile couple. Bea cannot accept her daughter’s decision, but she does not realize that neither Zsófi, nor the circumstances, are suitable to welcome a newborn. Zsófi has always had to behave like a grown-up, working and making sensible decisions, instead of her mother and for her sister. She is still in high school and her only advantage is her table tennis career, for which she works assiduously. She plans the adoption thoroughly with the help of a social worker. Following the birth, she is given six weeks by law to change her mind and ask for her child back. She seems to be able to control her feelings ruthlessly and continue towards the goals she has set. At the same time, her maternal feelings intensify, doubts arise, and she slowly begins to question her decisions.
In the early 1950s, a talented singer tries to defect to Italy with her football player lover, but is caught by an informant, so they have to pay hard for this anti-system act. Vince Nagy and Vali Szalai are a happy loving couple. Vince is a rising footballist, Vali is a singer. The socialist regime chose Vince to make an example of him: he has to leave the country immediately or broke up with Vali. They chose to leave together, but the escape fails, they get in prison.
The mother loves her daughter; the daughter loves her mother. The tragedy of misunderstood love. The adaptation of Magda Szabó's novel translated into twelve languages.
Zoltán Farkas, a well-known constructor, lives his life as Don Juan, while his young wife (Éva) want to divorce and has a lover, who is a young lieutenant. They go there last trip together to Zoltán's birthplace, where no one knows, that they will divorce, until some secrets getting revealed. Based on Ferenc Herczeg's novel.