During the Seven Years War, Austrian Queen Maria Theresa sends her best general, András Hadik and his Hussars to raid Berlin and humiliate the Prussian King, Frederick the Great.
The story takes place at the time of the defeat of the Hungarian War of Independence, when Csákberény came under the terror of the imperial soldiers. Two priests from the village are arrested overnight for reading the Hungarian Declaration of Independence. Although the Austrian soldiers enjoy their power, they are unable to identify with the repression. The purpose of the trial of a military imprisonment court is to obtain a confession, to prove that a violation of sovereignty has been committed.