Dorotea Toncheva

When a road construction detour forces former lovers Boyan and Neda to cross paths after seventeen years, they are compelled to spend a day traveling together toward Sofia. Their idealistic romance in the 1950s contrasts with their current lives as disillusioned, middle-aged professionals. As they talk, they confront the personal and social choices that led to their eventual separation.

In a white ward in a clinic, a lifetime balance on the verge of death. Memories are herding together in the mind of seriously ill Aleksandrov, a scientist, who evaluates and reevaluates his own life: friendships, loves, career. Images of his youth are crowding in: of his beloved, of his children, of evenings spent with his friends, ups and downs. And no one is able to say if all this made any difference.

Violetta is a ballerina in a provincial town. She is the daughter of an opera singer and a violinist. The years pass in anticipation of the big role, and the men she meets do not understand her and she remains alone. When the chance finally comes - to play the role of Odette, Violetta realises she has failed.

The seven women inmates in Poslednata Duma are imprisoned because they have been associated with partisans opposing the fascist puppet government of the German Nazis. Each of them has the power to save herself if she will betray the others, and each bravely refuses to do so, even though it means they all will die. Despite their grim situation, and the atrocities perpetuated on them as political prisoners, they manage to laugh, and even celebrate a festival.

The Bulgarian intelligence service has information that the top agent Peron is to arrive in Bulgaria. The higher official of the counter intelligence Ivan with an alias Y 17 is to investigate. Peron has to meet his local contact, the former ship captain Rudnev. The young Mina is accommodated in Rudnev's home. Rudnev figures that she is counterintelligence and agrees to cooperate with the task force. Soon after, Peron meets Mina and an eccentric engineer, fired from the job. The young man is the deep undercover agent Y 117. Peron tests the man. He tells him that Mina is an agent of the Bulgarian counterintelligence, and gives him a gun to kill her. Y 117 shoots Mina but the bullet was a blank. After that Y 117 should leave the country with Peron.

In September 1944, an unusual train travels to the Turkish border. Abroad the train are German fascists and Bulgarian King's officers who carry important papers and archives. A group of partisan chases the fugitives with a track. Soon airplanes with red stars on their wings could be seen in the sky. The planes are reinforcements from the Soviet aviation squadron. With its help the partisans capture the fugitives.

Elena, a pregnant young girl walks the steep path to the orphanage where single mothers often leave their children. The girls in the hospital greet Elena with a ritual they made up. She remains closed in herself. Elena tries to contact the boy who is the father with no success. Instead of him, his parents come. People who wish to adopt a child also come. Another woman does not find the strength to overcome the critical attitude of the people towards single mothers. This leads Elena to decision to take care of her baby by herself.

The courage to preserve one's integrity in trying times.