The year is 1948 and a counter-revolutionary gang is active in the Pirin region. A State Security officer managed to infiltrate the gang. He becomes "one of their own", but isn't in a rush to complete his task.
A small circus troupe wants to perform for the children in a small Eastern European town, but is prevented from doing so by the evil town boss. The circus' clown and his colleagues come up with a plan to defeat the boss and his men and put on a show for the kids.
American filmmakers associated with the mafia are concerned about the great success of Bulgarian films around the world. They decided to send a big spy, Jesse James, to Bulgaria. His task is to blow up the film studios. But the Bulgarian inspector Lokum Shekerov is at his post.
In the House of Marriages, the young couples are paraded one after other. The newlyweds sign the register, kiss and receive congratulations. The picture fades out and another house takes shape: house of executions. An antifascist resister condemned to die marries his beloved minutes before facing the firing squad.
The wife of a Bulgarian POW camp's warden falls in love with a Serbian prisoner at the end of World War I.
The Soviet army is approaching the Bulgarian border. Many government ministers and army officers prepare to flee the country. The partisans take over the key administrative buildings. At the War Ministry, the commander of the armored brigade Major Essev hesitates between his sense of honor as an officer and his patriotic duty. He takes the side of the partisans.
The beginning of the 18th century. Bulgaria is under the Ottoman bondage. The monks of the Monastery of Hilendar on Mount Athos warn the young monk Paisiy to beware of the "pestilent chapel". On his deathbed, the abbot conjures Paisiy to search for Slavonic books. The young monk goes from one monastery to another in search of ancient books. He breaks into the "pestilent chapel" and finds there stacks of old Bulgarian books telling of the wisdom of Bulgarians kings, and of the power and civilization of the Bulgarian Empire and its past glory. His fellow-monks try to burn the books but Paisiy manages to escape. His Slav-Bulgarian History circulates in handwritten copies through the captive country and the Bulgarians becomes truly aware of their national identity.