In Belgrade, at the cinema "Cenzura," officials watch Andric at the Nobel Prize ceremony. Andric returns from Stockholm with Milica via Switzerland, a country he refused to flee to at the beginning of the war, choosing instead to endure the war with his people. His memory takes him back to 1941 when he arrives in occupied Belgrade with Milica and Nenad Jovanovic, settling in the apartment of the Milenkovic family. He then faces interrogations by the Special Police and pressure to sign the quisling "Appeal to the Serbian People." Andric refuses to sign the Appeal and tries to distance himself from the occupying authorities. He is confronted with daily horrors: hangings in Terazije, the terror of the Germans and Nedic's forces, and trains filled with Greek Jews. Andric withdraws into writing, but the pressure from the police is intense, and he is again questioned about his Masonic past. In 1942, he visits Ozren with Marko Ristic to see the poet Rade Drainac, who is in a sanatorium. In 1943, Nenad Jovanovic is arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Andric finishes "Na Drini Cuprija." In 1944, there is the Allied bombing of Belgrade and another meeting with Milica.
—TroyStr