[1] In 1919, after just a few months of communist rule, the Hungarian Republic of Councils was dissolved by a nationalist counter-revolution.
Admiral Horthy, leader of the nationalists, assumed power as the Regent of Hungary.
One, István Cserzi, has fled to the Great Hungarian Plain and taken refuge on a farm run by two women.
Due to their help and that of a childhood friend who is a commandant of the local Gendarmarie, István is relatively safe if he keeps out of sight.
However, discovering that the women are slowly poisoning the husband of one of them and his mother, the farm's owners, István must decide whether to denounce them to the authorities at the likely cost of his own life.