Old friends, former front—line soldiers, suddenly quarreled in earnest: Peter Sorbu, the head of the carpet factory construction, quite sincerely believes that the factory should be built first, and the town for workers is the second thing; architect Anton Grecu also sincerely does not understand how people will fulfill the plan if they have nowhere to live, and in the end defends the priority construction of the town.

Summer of 1940. The architect returns from Bucharest to his native Bessarabia with a firm desire to live outside politics. However, life forces him to make a choice.