The end of World War II. The Bulgarian army is fighting the German one. Private Peycho Peychev known as Peychina is also at the frontier - a sensitive and timid person forced to witness the horrors of the war. His commanding officer keeps saying that at the end of a war the world is swept by a 'surge of tenderness'. After a serious injury, Peychina goes back to his birth place. The new ruling powers in the village try to win him over to their side but what he is really good at is holding the chisel, not the gun. He carves an image of Elena, a woman that he falls in love with. Yet, the surge of tenderness in the world seems to be canceled. Peychina comes to be responsible for the death of an anarchist and helps capture his commanding officer, who fights against the new rule. When the mayor hands him a gun again, he refuses to take it.