Kostas Kafetzoglou and his fellow students from the School of Fine Arts practise design, painting a landscape in an amphitheatre. The narrator introduces Kostas, who is traveling on a railway carriage, and talks about his past and present and his aspirations for the future. He was born in Thessaloniki and it was his father's wish that he should take over their business, but Kostas had a flair for painting and a deep admiration for artists and intellectuals that could bring about a change to this land. And so he came to Athens to study painting because he aspired to become like one of the people he admired.

Participants: KOSTAS - STUDENTS

Kostas tells his girlfriend about his visit to his fellow student's house and that he suggested Kostas painted some portraits for a fee. If only for the money, Kostas agreed, of course. There is a collation of scenes showing Kostas's girl shopping for clothes, while radio programmes talk about consumerism and health. On the radio in a taxi, it says that head of the state Georgios Papadopoulos has declared Greece a Presidential Parliamentary Democracy. We see newspaper cutouts about the current affair and hear (over) Papadopoulos addressing the Greek people, urging them to overlook their own personal interests for the sake of national concord and the future of the nation, apparently referring to the "uprising" against monarchy. While the tape runs fast forward, as it were, and completely distorts the spoken word, Kostas walks around the Flea Market in Monastiraki and buys some furniture, which he takes to his bed-sitting studio.

Participants: KOSTAS – KOSTAS' S GIRLFRIEND

Kostas is taking pictures of swans in a pond in the National Gardens. Then the painting hangs on the wall in his studio. The voice over tells that he is commisioned for a series of swans for 10.000 drachmas and that Kostas was suprised by the subject matter. He nevertheless agreed considering it as something transitory.

Participants: KOSTAS

Charis is met at the airport by his father, an upper-middle class businessman. During the car ride, he tells his son that the time has come for him to have his share of running the business and attend the board meetings and get to know the ropes and the big picture. On arriving at his apartment, Charis calls Mary on the phone, and she says that she missed him. The whole gang, Charis with Mary and Kostas with his girlfriend, go to the Saronic Gulf for a swim. The voice of the radio over says that Sophia Loren has decided to give up the cinema in order to raise her children.

Participants: CHARIS – CHARIS' FATHER – MARY – KOSTAS – KOSTAS'S GIRL

Kostas is in the studio of the gallery owner who commissioned the series of swan paintings. He expresses his appreciation for Kostas's talent, but discreetly indicates to him what to paint, what fetches a good price on the market. The themes that appeal to Kostas, such as bustling city life, buildings and main roads are much too progressive for most people's taste and do not sell as good as more nostalgic themes, like the old slum areas of Athens, the neoclassical buildings that have fallen into disrepair etc. The gallery owner does not want to impose on Kostas and tell him what to paint; he just points out to him certain aspects of the market he should know.

Participants: KOSTAS – THE GALLERY OWNER

Charis and Kostas are on Mary's balcony and Charis analyses for Kostas the student movements in the United Kingdom, where each university is self-governed and there is no nationwide uprising of students. Then the whole gang goes to a disco to dance. They go back to some luxury offices, probably Charis's father's, where the two couples go into separate secluded areas and make love.

Participants: KOSTAS – CHARIS – MARY – KOSTAS' GIRLFRIEND

Kostas is in his studio painting city scenes, a highway in particular. The two couples are lying on some rocks by the sea, talking about issues of immediate report and speculating about their future. Kostas' girlfriend says that it is about time he found a proper, permanent job and earned a living, because what he does is not painting. She urges him to work at her uncle's office, which Kostas finds rather upsetting in principle, as he has other plans for his life. Further down Mary confides in Charis that she would like him to think of her more often when he is in Britain. Charis explains that he is not happy to go back to Britain, but he has no other choice. In his atelier, Kostas keeps painting city scenes. We see his paintings of blocks of flats, industrial complexes and main roads. Kostas takes these paintings to the gallery and informs the owner of his decision to stop drawing. The gallery owner doesn't understand his reasons and wants to know if it has something to do with him. Kostas reassures him that they are on very good working terms and that he is giving up painting for reasons of his own. The gallery owner pays him handsomely for his work and tells him that he will be happy to do business with him again. At home, Kostas is painting his girlfriend's portrait and confides his worries to her that if he drops out of the school, he will be conscripted straight away. Later on, in bed, Kostas asks her about her uncle. She says that he is a self-made businessman who started at the bottom of the ladder without any assets and has now become one of the best advertisers with a lot of money, landed property and stocks. She pictures him as a man with passion for his work, young at heart, hard working and accessible, who takes a liberal view of the work relationship with his employees and a prompt payer, too.

Participants: KOSTAS – KOSTAS' GIRL – MARY – CHARIS – GALLERY OWNER

Kostas is sitting at his desk the uncle's advertising agency, leafing through the advertisements in various magazines. Just then he has a flashback of his entire student life since he came to Athens, with its confrontations, problems and hopes and the will to fight for the future he his fellow students had dreamed of. It is the moment of realization that he left all this behind when he decided to give up painting and get an office job. It all boils down to the fact that he is now in a position to have a beautiful penthouse apartment with a panoramic view of Athens, where he can live with his girlfriend.

Participants: KOSTAS – KOSTAS' GIRLFRIEND

Opening titles on long shots of the Polytechnic and students talking at the forecourt and the entrance to the building.

In a lecture hall in the School of Fine Arts, the professor analyzes the sociological and philosophical role of art in Ancient Greece. His voice carries over shots of Athens and archaeological sites visited by a group of students. Kostas takes pictures of Kouroi and other statues inside the museum.

Participants: KOSTAS – A GROUP OF STUDENTS

Shots of front page headlines about student arrests. Authentic speeches delivered by students of the Polytechnic generation with shots of streets of Athens. Kostas and his company are seated at a round table in someone's house contemplating on what the students should do and how to enlist the teachers' support. Kostas analyzes his viewpoint and stresses that whatever the students may do, the government's attitude is likely to get tougher and no-one can tell how all this is going to end. Anyway, he is not particularly hopeful about the students achieving their goals through discussions and negotiations. He aspires to study painting and affect the course of events through his art.

Participants: KOSTAS – A GROUP OF STUDENTS

Kostas is in his room, painting his girlfriend's portrait and describing his confrontation with the other students the other day. The girl inquires about how the events involving students originated in the first place and he explains that it all began with complaints and demands by students from the School of Commerce which triggered a chain reaction in all the other schools, eventually spreading to the School of Fine Arts. Kostas is pessimist about the outcome of the students' struggle, which he describes as a search for utopia. When he is by himself, he experiences strong feelings of guilt and blames himself for being a petit bourgeois and a narcissist.

Participants: KOSTAS – KOSTAS' GIRLFRIEND

Kostas and his girlfriend leave the home, hold hands and walk the street all day, up Lycabettus and around Athens. In the evening, they end up at Kostas' place and make love. We hear the girl complainingly compare her parents' discriminating attitude towards Kostas and Charis, her sister's boyfriend; her parents completely ignore Kostas, as if he didn't exist.

Participants: KOSTAS – KOSTAS' GIRLFRIEND

Kostas and his company go to the cinema to see Koundouros's "Drakos". We watch the scene from the film at the rebetiko music hall (playing music of a certain Greek culture) where Iliopoulos is murdered. Leaving the cinema after the screening, the company talk about the film and comment on the role of the press and the cinema in current affairs, which was once limited to inconsequential stories and the construction of myths, but has now grown in importance and mirrors reality. Kostas's company is in the mood for another round of merrymaking, but he doesn't join them and slowly walks away.

Participants: KOSTAS – A COMPANY OF STUDENTS

Kostas walks along the passages in the School of Fine Arts and comes to rest at the stairs looking pensive. The school head's voice is heard, who commends him for his talent and merits and asks him to find out about the students' plans, in effect asking him to spy on the students. Kostas looks deeply troubled and stressful, as if faced with a dilemma.

Participants: KOSTAS -THE HEAD OF THE SCHOOL

Kostas is walking in the court of the School of Fine Arts with Charis, a fellow student, who invites Kostas to his house. On their way, they stop over at a record shop to buy a vinyl. They go to Mary's, Charis' girlfriend, and sit out on the big veranda. Charis shows Kostas his drawings from the university in America where he has studied painting. His drawings are so much more innovative by comparison to the received classical manner of the School of Fine Arts. He tells Kostas about the experience he gained in America, the various artistic movements as well as the student movement, elaborating on the repercussions of the student uprising on the people's daily life. Kostas also chats with Mary, who lives in this upper-middle class house with her sister Lena. Mary tells Kostas that she wants to study biology. Kostas cannot help noticing how very different she is from her sister, who doesn't seem to be keen on studying.

Participants: KOSTAS – CHARIS – MARY - LENA