Early 20th-century Latvia. Revolutionary Mārtiņš Robežnieks is arrested by the gendarmes, while his younger brother Jānis, a teacher dismissed for his rebellious speeches, returns to their family home. Initially, Jānis continues to agitate among the farm workers, but his marriage to the estate manager’s daughter gradually draws him away from the revolutionary cause. When the upheaval of 1905 reaches their homeland, Mārtiņš returns from Riga as peasants rise against the baron’s rule.