The teacher of a village in Zakynthos, trying to react to the alienation of the village, mobilizes his villagers to put on a play and falls in love with the widow of an immigrant.

Antonis Katsaris stars as a teacher in the small village of Zante who fights the growing desire of many locals to abandon the village for the big city or other countries. He works hard to organize traditional cultural events, such as outdoor performances of the traditional play I Chrissomalloussa, in order to solidify local values and a sense of identity. The teacher is aided by a young woman, a widow who has just returned from Germany and lives with her father-in-law. Kazan walks away with the film, as his sinister desires for his daughter-in-law are inflamed when he sees that she has fallen in love with the teacher. These developments lead him to whip up protests against the play by conservative locals, claiming that the teacher has changed the traditional story by adding elements of propaganda with the potential of causing peasant uprisings. The result is an unexpectedly violent example of social censorship.

After the untimely death of her husband in Germany, widowed Eleni leaves everything behind and returns to Greece with her young daughter in tow. The beautiful woman sets foot in a small village on the island of Zante, the Flower of the Levant, and she embarks on a romantic relationship with the community's liberal-minded teacher, who dreams of putting on a production of Chrysomallousa: The Girl with the Golden Hair. But as the secret lovers try to breathe new life into the traditional stage play, prejudice and bigotry stand in the way of success with unforeseen, calamitous consequences.—Nick Riganas