Mari Pataki, a modest yet promising young farmer girl, lives in a rural setting undergoing significant changes. Her father won't let her see the man she adores. The father, concerned with labor on the farm and the prospect of fortune, chooses to marry his daughter to an elderly but wealthy man with whom he does business. He claims that land marries land. This appears to represent the Hungarian peasantry's unrelenting reign. But the young lover is eager for any challenge in order to maintain Maris' affection.