This 1962 first novel of Romanian screenwriter Titus Popovici is set in Romania and Transylvania in 1944 in the climatic period of World War II. The protagonist Andrei Sabin is a high school student disillusioned with the war and the fascist government. The author depicts the evolution of a young, honest intellectual who, after much wavering joins the patriots in their struggle for the freedom of the Romanian people, and who participates in setting up the free society following the war.