János Balassa

Venice Film Festival 1940

The protagonist of the story is Flora, a teacher who wants to teach in the village, in accordance with her vocation and her oath. Her beauty and purity bring her into conflict with the local authorities and with the landowning family of the countryside. Aware of her truth, she defies them, but can only count on the sympathy of the old priest. István Nagy Jr., the idle, dissolute landowner's son, falls in love with Flóra, and love changes him: he takes her side, exposing the lecherous hypocrites.

Among the Gruber family, the rumor spreads like wildfire that their wealthy American relative, Menyhért Gruber, is visiting Hungary with his daughter, Mary. Various plans are devised to exploit the rich relative. The boldest of them all is the plan of Bálint Koltay, who directly pursues Mary's hand. However, the young ones fall in love with each other so deeply that Bálint stands by Mary even when the "wealthy" Gruber informs him that he's bankrupt. At this point, the only thing left to arrange is for Bálint, who poses as a landowner, to actually present a noble castle to his future father-in-law.