The Iron Guard, also known as Legion of Archangel Michael, was a Romanian nationalist and patriotic movement of extreme right; as such, after it rose to power, it supported Nazi Germany and started a fierce campaign of retaliation against its political enemies. As such, in the night of November 26-27, 1940, the Death Teams executed forty political prisoners in the Jilava prison (in the movie, named "Viraga"), and next day, other two Teams arrested and shot the former minister Virgil Madgearu and the world famous historian Nicolae Iorga (in the movie: Costin Märgeanu and Nicolae Jugu). To squash down the political outcry, the Police Prefect Stefan Zävoianu (Visan Nävodeanu) conveniently assigns the cases to a commissioner from the "Morals Division" (prostitution, thieves), Tudor Moldovan, hoping that he will fail to get to the bottom of the case. However...

Four boys start neglecting school in order to meet in a hidden location and play poker. As time goes by, their poker games become more and more serious, while at the same time bring them closer as friends. Now that they are grown-ups, Claudiu, Titel, Horia and Marcel are known as the resourceful politician, the surgeon who knows people, the adventurous gangster and the millionaire architect. Behind their normal day-to-day activities, such as cocoa transactions or garden gnomes deals, the boys hide serious, money-making businesses. Their last "match" reveals that each of the four friends has a secret plan the others don't know about, and soon their traditional poker game turns into a ridiculous bluff. While Monica, the politician's mistress, watches their cat and mouse game with disguised indifference, the boys fail to realize that none of them has the ace up his sleeve...

An epic fresco depicting the reign (1593-1601) of Mihai Pätrascu (better known as "Mihai Viteazul" / "Michael the Brave"), the famous prince who united the three provinces: Transalpine Vallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia, into the country of Romania, at the end of the 16th century (1599-1601) against the opposition of the Ottoman and Austrian Empires, this movie features large scale battle scenes mixed with political intrigues, murderous treachery, and family drama.