The state is still working on maintaining the reputation of the Nobel laureate and carefully combing through his past. Andrić sets off for Fruška Gora to the weekend home of his friend Mladen Leskovac. On the train, a man who introduces himself as a journalist hands him a box that once contained the medal he left with Brana Milenković for safekeeping. On Fruška Gora, together with Leskovac, he visits churches and monasteries.

The line of memories extends to 1951, to an exhibition marking 10 years since the beginning of the war, where a photograph of the signing of the Tripartite Pact was displayed. Impressions of Isidora Sekulić regarding the yet-to-be-published "The Damned Yard" are recalled. After that, it moves to 1957, the year Milica's husband, Nenad Jovanović, passed away, and the following year, when Ivo Andrić and Milica Babić finally got married.