The film is set in Budapest, during the first days of December 1956.

The fighting is over, but hundreds of people are leaving the country every day. One of them is Gyuri, 20, an ex-soldier, who fought on the side of the revolutionaries, and therefore has to flee. His friend, Daniel, is not interested in politics, but as the girl he loves, Marianne, has left Budapest the previous day, he is bound to follow her.

On their journey towards the Austrian border, the two young men meet Marianne and her parents at a country restaurant. Together with many other people who are on their way, they have a wild party, a party that suddenly turns into a patriotic demonstration. Gyuri has found his father, a member of the Communist Party, who had been imprisoned under false charges. They discover the man who had given orders for the arrest in the restaurant, but when three men attack him, Gyuri's father comes to his rescue. Due to this incident, Gyuri misses the lorries to Austria.