A bit of color for once, all the better to see the red flags with, not to mention the obvious aerial file footage of Warsaw. The story concerns Jozef Malesa, the mason or bricklayer of the title. He was once the darling of the party, the son of two old party activists, a worker of heroic reputation, his own commitment to The Movement unquestioned. He was chosen to be destined for great things, specially educated and pushed forward to positions of responsibility in the Party. Eventually he decides, because of the ethical pressures which he feels from the obstructionism of the bureaucracy from above, he asks to return to be a simple bricklayer. He is disturbed with the way the Party deals with people, especially their lack of direct contact. He thinks workers know better than the leadership many times but that's not the way power flows. He is uncomfortable with the compromises to his idealism. He remains committed to social justice and joins his friends for the May Day rally where his comfort and confidence in his place in society cause him to defer to no man, certainly no rat faced men in overcoats with red armbands. His great pleasure in life moreover is laying brick. He finds the work satisfying and fulfilling which is why he was such an obviously superior worker in the first place.
Two villages in Rayalaseema, Nallagudi and Kommadi are engaged in a feud for decades lead by Basi Reddy and Narapa Reddy respectively. The son of Narapa Reddy, Veera Raghava Reddy, returns from London after completing his education. Basi Reddy attacks and kills Narapa Reddy on their way home. Raghava instinctively takes a sword and kills his opponents. After talking to his grandmother about the feud, he realizes that violence became a way of life for the people in these villages and he leaves for Hyderabad seeking a solution to the feud. Raghava meets Aravindha in Hyderabad and falls in love with her. She strongly believes in solving problems without bloodshed and sets him on a path of self-discovery. He decides to return to his village and put an end to the feud.
