The old, sickly Demeter Lapussa is a tyrant in the family. He forces his granddaughter, the beautiful Henriette, to marry baron Hátszegi, although the girl loves the penniless Vámhidy Szilárd. The two lovers attempt to commit suicide, then are torn away from each other.

Dani, the few-month-old little boy born outside marriage is left by Eszter in the lap of her companion on the train. The widowed Aranka takes him willingly to her. The child is already ten years old and has a good life with Aranka. Then Géza enters their life and he does not welcome the child of someone else.

Love, rivalry and humiliation in a Hungarian village.

A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.