Through the unconventional life story of Ana, singer, sister, mistress, wife and mother, the film unfolds the groundbreaking historical moments of the 20th century in Montenegro and Europe, tied to a grand hotel in the Bay of Kotor that stands as a symbol of the Western world within a Balkan patriarchal surrounding.

1913–1979. In the small coastal town of Herceg Novi, four friends of different backgrounds, Ludvik, Mirko, Tonči and Trifko, play music mostly at funerals. At the funeral of Trifko's mother, his sister Ana watches from a gravestone. The band is chosen to open the grand Hotel Boka, a lavish Austro-Hungarian gift. At the hotel Ana meets Tapavica, the worldly architect, who tells her the fairy tale of the Hertz Minute: find your gift and become immortal. The band performs; Ana sings quietly behind glass. The 1914 Sarajevo assassination and mobilisation scatter the friends. Through the First World War and the interwar years, Ana becomes admired for her voice, falls for Nikola Đurković, a Sorbonne-educated communist, and is shamed by her brother. Between 1934 and 1942 occupations and politics darken everything: a German officer rapes Ana, Mirko and Trifko kill him in revenge, and Ana is arrested, tortured and forced to work as a hotel maid. In 1944 the partisans liberate and loot the hotel. Postwar Yugoslavia brings purges, illness and loss, while Ana sings at burials and life goes on. In 1979 an elderly Ana is asked to sing and performs in the hotel ballroom. An earthquake collapses the hotel, and in a dreamlike vision she is young again, reunited with her friends, her lover, her brother and her child, achieving her Hertz Minute as she sings her immortal song.

Kroz netipičnu žensku životnu priču Ane, pjevačice, sestre, ljubavnice, supruge i majke, film otvara prelomne istorijske trenutke 20. vijeka u Crnoj Gori i Evropi, vezane za veliki hotel u Boki koji je simbol zapadnog svijeta usred balkanskog patrijarhalnog okruženja.

1913–1979. U malom primorskom gradu Herceg Novom četiri prijatelja različitog porijekla, Ludvik, Mirko, Tonči i Trifko, sviraju uglavnom na sahranama. Na sahrani Trifkove majke, njegova sestra Ana posmatra ih sa nadgrobne ploče. Bend je izabran da otvori veliki Hotel Boka, raskošni austrougarski poklon. U hotelu Ana upoznaje Tapavicu, svjetskog arhitektu, koji joj priča bajku o Hercovom minutu: pronađi svoj dar i postani besmrtan. Bend nastupa, a Ana tiho pjeva iza stakla. Sarajevski atentat 1914. i mobilizacija razdvajaju prijatelje. Kroz Prvi svjetski rat i međuratne godine, Ana postaje poznata po svom glasu, zaljubljuje se u Nikolu Đurkovića, komunistu školovanog na Sorboni, a brat je zbog toga sramoti. Između 1934. i 1942. okupacije i politika sve zamračuju: njemački oficir siluje Anu, Mirko i Trifko ga iz osvete ubijaju, a Anu hapse, muče i primoravaju da radi kao hotelska sobarica. Godine 1944. partizani oslobađaju i pljačkaju hotel. Poslijeratna Jugoslavija donosi čistke, bolest i gubitke, dok Ana pjeva na sahranama, a život se nastavlja. Godine 1979. ostarjelu Anu zamole da zapjeva i ona nastupa u hotelskoj sali. Zemljotres ruši hotel, a ona u snoviđenju ponovo postaje mlada, okupljena sa prijateljima, ljubavlju, bratom i djetetom, dostižući svoj Hercov minut dok pjeva svoju besmrtnu pjesmu.