After an oil field is discovered nearby the small Dalmatian town of Murvice, the local goverment wastes no time and throws all of the town's expenses towards building an oil tanker harbor. Urged by his wife, a local engineer named Slobodan Despot applies himself for the position of the chief engineer on the project, which her lover uses as an excuse to ruin Despot's reputation. Furious by this reputation and questioning all of his ideas, Despot decides to start an affair with a woman far younger than him.