Vilis Verners

In 1802, growing anger among Latvian peasants erupts after changes in taxation, placing an even heavier burden on the peasant population. After a series of meetings, the peasants resolve to use force to free those already arrested. Thousands armed with clubs and scythes rise up, but are driven back by troops and retreat into a nearby forest. As reinforcements arrive, mass arrests and brutal reprisals follow, and the courts sentence some of the rebels to lifelong exile in Siberia.

What begins with an unexpected invitation to a dance quickly becomes a passionate romance between young Monta and Arnis. But the joy of their first love is soon clouded by misunderstanding. Monta’s straightforward honesty clashes with Arnis’s complicated past, including a sense of moral responsibility toward another woman. Then, a serious accident at the factory, caused by Arnis’s mistake, forces him to confront the consequences of his actions.

A young girl is puzzled when she has to choose a husband. She cannot decide whether to marry her childhood friend or a recently met nouveau riche.