After World War II, the Istrian woman Katina (main character of the novel Šavrinke) finds herself in prison in Pula. She is sentenced to one year of emprisonment, officially because of smuggling but the real reason lies in the fact that in spite of torturing she did not want to betray the people who secretly led refugees – Slovenian and Croatian Istrians – over the border to Italy. In prison they use the most cruel methods trying to break her and turn a rebelious widow (her husband died in the Dachau concentration camp) and a mother of four into a useful (obedient) citizen. They do not succeed. When she is set free, the prison director, also a widower with children proposes to her. She asks him: Why do you wish to marry me? He replies: Because you are the only prisoner who we didn’t manage to break. You remained honest when you came to and when you left the prison. But she answers: And I want to stay that way. That is why I do not take you for my husband!
