The horrors of war are the subject of this Czech anthology film consisting of three vignettes. The first is set during WW I. It follows the course of a gypsy who deserts the army to return to his town for a wedding. To protect himself, he dresses up as a woman. Unfortunately, the hussar spots him and kills him. Another deserter, witnessing the killing, starts a peasant revolt. They are massacred by more hussars. The massacre is quite graphic, and Gypsy music plays as the peasants die. The second episode begins as Russian partisans kill an old man suspected of being a German spy. They then learn that the war is over. Celebrations ensue until a German patrol, not knowing of the war's end, cuts them down. The final episode follows the search of two nuclear holocaust survivors to find other people. They find no one and eventually die of grief.