The novel describes the events of October - November 1956, when the Hungarian reactionary underground, with the incitement and direct support of the imperialist powers, raised a counter-revolutionary rebellion in Hungary. Against the background of tragic events, the author in an artistic form shows the fate of two loving young people - tank sergeant Laszlo Török and Erzhi Bruckner, an activist of the Union of Working Youth of Hungary, who, due to the circumstances, found themselves on opposite sides of the barricade.