The film follows the adventures of a troupe of travelling players in Greece from 1939 to 1952. The political life of Greece and the private life of the members of the troupe (who also happen to be members of the same family) become inextricably entwined. On the one hand, we observe the final days of the Metaxas dictatorship, the beginning of the war, the Italian invasion, the German occupation, the Liberation, the arrival of the allies (English at first and then American), the oppression of the leftist fighters and the bloody civil war, up until the 1952 elections and the victory of the Right Wing; on the other, the adventures of the family of Orestes, his sister, his father, his mother and his lover, refer us to the central core of the myth of the Atridae.

The film won numerous prizes, both nationally and internationally, and was considered the 44th best film in the history of world cinema, by the International Association of Film Critics.