In Belgrade, at the "Censorship" Cinema, officials watch Andrić at the awarding of the Nobel Prize. Andrić returns from Stockholm with Milica via Switzerland, the country where he refused to take refuge at the beginning of the war and decided to spend the war with his people. His memory takes him to 1941, when he arrived in occupied Belgrade with Milica and Nenad Jovanović and settled in the apartment of the Milenković family. This is followed by interrogations by the Special Police and pressure to sign the Quisling Appeal to the Serbian people. Andrić refuses to sign the Appeal and tries to distance himself from the occupation authorities. He is faced with everyday horrors: hangings at Terazije, terror of Germans and Nedicians, trains full of Greek Jews. Andrić retires to writing, but the pressure from the police is great, they question him again in connection with his Masonic past.