Irina Tomsone

Young Juris is being raised by his mother alone in a rural village. She is in love with Jānis, a collective farm driver, and the two plan to get married. As the wedding approaches, Juris prepares a special secret gift for them—a “sun candle” plant he is growing in a forest clearing.

Arvīds Lasmanis can't hold any job for long because he is not ready to tolerate deceit and slapdash work. He still has to feed his family, by chance he finds a well-paid job as a gravedigger. A friend helps Arvīds to find a place in a construction team, but other workers don't approve of Arvīds' high principles. His wife accuses him of not knowing how to make money, the family lives crammed in one room of a shared flat. The Soviet absurd comedy tells a story about a man who, while at odds with the system, won't lose his conscience and his true self, even if it means saying no to wealth and comfort.

The events of the film take place in Latvia during the 1930s to the 1950s. Klinta, a young, poor, and naive villager, studies music in a nearby provincial Latvian town. Her meeting with the owner of a wealthy farm, Olavs, becomes fateful for the girl.

A detective and a militia captain are working together investigating a murder. When their job is done, the feelings do not let them say goodbye.

The son of Martins Viksna, the collective farm chairman, Klavs comes home from the military service and starts working in his native kolkhoz but does not understand his colleagues, so he goes to town.

The elderly nursing home residents for years feel worthless and troublesome. But then a crazy idea strikes them - to waive their pensions and enroll in the army as volunteers thus saving the country from financial crisis and spending excitingly the last years of their lives. The oldies are wise enough at organizing this event and now real adventures begin.

After his family was introduced on a national TV as a "perfect family", the son Robert has a hard time confronting all the lies related to this accidental fame.