Istvan szalay and tibor szabo attend the saint istvan gimnazium. when the pictures of the school's patron saint and his bavarian queen gisella are removed and replaced with a giant red star depicting a bust of stalin, istvan and his girlfriend zsuzsa conspire to set the monstrosity on fire. they are caught and sentenced to hard labor. tibor is befriended by a german officer and entrusted with a photo of the doomed soldier's daughter gisella, whom the young man determines to find. he is accepted to a science university and plans to become an astronomer. in the spring of 1953, tibor manages to help istvan escape from the labor camp, stalin dies and the terror slackens. in the summer of 1956 tibor is sent to east germany and finds gisella. returning with her to budapest, just before the start of the revolution, in which the good friends take an active part. when the rebellion seems to succed, the two pairs of young lovers marry. however, soon after the revolution is crushed by the soviets, istvan zsuzsa, tibor and gisella must escape to the west. the szalays travel to switzerland and the szabos to the united states where tibor achieves his dream of becoming an astronomer.