Andrej Lettrich

The life on the poor Slovak hills, the lazy hills, where agriculture is at a primitive stage and where the shelves give a small harvest. Meanwhile, socialist industrialization is reaching an amazing boom in the valleys. Therefore, it is necessary to solve the problem of small farmers on poor farms and the lack of labor in ever-growing industrial enterprises. The film, based on the fate of Matěj Rendek, who returns to Slovakia after 18 years from America, and on the fate of his family, who have toiled for years on poor fields and slaved for a rich farmer, shows how this problem must be solved: an agricultural cooperative is established on the lazy hills, which, with the help of machines, can handle agricultural work better and with a significantly smaller number of laborers, and most of the lazy villagers leave to work at a large sawmill.

The construction of a large dam in Slovakia is hindered by the influence of small farmers on the landowner Bujna, on whom they depend for help with the harvest and for monetary loans.