The story takes place in the occupied Sarajevo during WWII. The inn ran by Hilmija is a gathering place for all: Communist rebels, Chetniks, members of the Handschar Division, as well as German soldiers, and the city commander, Sturmbannführer Shiling. There is also a Serb spy of the Albanian origin, an Ustasha philosopher and smuggler, a Jewish woman named Rahela, Durmiš the Romani waiter, head of the Sarajevo police, and many more.

Hilmija is a swindler who collaborates with all sides, hoping to make it to the end of the war as painlessly as possible. The inn is a place where everybody is conspiring against everybody else, right under their noses, and where the national tensions are less important than the personal material interests. Adding to the story are two miners, Krhki and Frljoka, partisan rebels who are hiding in the basement of the inn, charged with the task of digging a tunnel to the German armory.