A young man grows up in Sarajevo in the 1960s, under the shadow of his good, but ailing father, and gets attracted by the world of small-time criminals. They hire him to hide a young prostitute and he falls in love with her.

On April 5, 1941, a date Serbs will recognize, men on a country road board Krstic's bus for Belgrade: two Gypsies who occasionally sing about misery, an aging war vet, a Nazi sympathizer, a dapper singer, a consumptive, and a man with a shotgun. Krstic is a world-weary cynic, out for a buck; the driver is his son, the simple, cheerful Misko. En route they pick up a priest and young newlyweds going to the seaside. Along the way, mis-adventure strikes: a flat tire, a rickety bridge, a farmer who's plowed the road, a funeral, two feuding families, an army detail, and a lost wallet slow the bus and expose rifts among the travelers. On April 6, amid rumors of war, they reach Belgrade...

The Topalovic family has been in the burial business for generations. When the old (150 yrs old) Pantelija dies, five generations of his heirs start to fight for the inheritance.