Summary Shortly before the end of the Civil War, in 1948, the villages along the border are evacuated to facilitate the National Army’s movements as well as to hamper those of the rebels. A forty-year-old villager, Margaritis (Thymios Karakatsanis), is forced, as are many others, to abandon his home and head for Thessaloniki with his two children. He settles into one of the city buildings, the Caravanserai, which has been designated for just this purpose. Here the refugees live under appalling conditions and resort to unnatural, dishonest behavior and cunning deeds. Margaritis tries not to get involved in all the unspeakable atrocities unfolding before him, at quite some psychological cost. His son becomes a worker and remains in the city, while his daughter resorts to the convenient solution of prostitution. Margaritis himself returns to his deserted village.