Just before the outbreak of war. Adriana tries to go inside her house, but a drunken young man bars her way. Tsargo reminds her that they danced together a year ago. She rebuffs him. A dream sequence begins, and it is unclear who is dreaming – Adriana or Tsargo, or both. Tsargo prepares to take Adriana dancing, but as she takes his arm he turns into a bottle that drops and breaks. Adriana wakes up laughing. Tsargo also awakens, feeling humiliated, and rushes off uttering threats.

The rumble of war comes, echoing Tsargo’s fury. He re-enters as a soldier carrying a gun. He knocks at Adriana’s door. She snubs him as sternly as before, and he breaks down the door. We deduce that he rapes her.

A pregnant Adriana quarrels with her sister over her decision to keep the child. Refka has a dream which expresses her anxiety about the unborn baby. Adriana shares those fears – will her son turn out to be Cain or Abel?

Seventeen years later. Yonas, Adriana’s son, has just learned the truth about his father. Yonas is furious, especially with his unknown father, whom he swears to kill. The scene ends with another dream, in which Yonas slays his whole family, finally turning his weapon against himself.

Refka enters to tell Adriana some news, but comes instead upon Yonas, who upbraids her for having lied to him about his father. Adriana enters and Refka tells her, in Yonas’s presence, that Tsargo is back in the country. Yonas charges off vowing to kill him.

Yonas confronts his father. Tsargo admits who he is and what he has done. Yonas announces that he intends to kill him, and asks him to turn around. As he turns slowly, we discover he is blind. Unable to kill him, Yonas flees.

All four characters are on stage independently of one another. All are distraught. Only Adriana and Yonas eventually meet. Yonas asks her to forgive him for failing to avenge her. Yonas explains what happened. She tells him that before he was born, she wondered whether her son would turn out to be a killer like his father. Her answer has come. Yonas is her son, sprung from her blood, and not the son of a monster. “We are not avenged,” she tells him. “We are saved.”