A young and poor student poet, Ivan (Ljubisa Samardzic), decides he's going to make it to the top. He has a devoted friend and pretty, loving girlfriend, but somehow that's not enough. He enlists for a poetry contest and gets noticed by a socialite TV journalist, twice his age, who takes him under her wing. Ivan does his part and starts climbing socially and professionally, marries a rich girl, ditches his girlfriend and his past life, becoming heartless and unscrupulous in the process, burning every bridge he crosses on his way. As he reaches his goal his life starts disintegrating around him, abandoned by his old friends and protégés, and losing his wife, he faces himself again in the form of a young country teacher that wants to take his place as the head of big publishing company.