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Five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989, people in the countries of the former Soviet bloc are finding that freedom has brought mixed blessings. A Czech dissident is disappointed by an increase in greediness and selfishness while an old soldier is frustrated by what he sees as the ineffective laws in the new Czech Republic. An unemployed factory worker in Poland leads a miserable existence on pitiful social security hand-outs but another Pole has few regrets about returning to his homeland after 30 years in exile. A headhunter in Hungary and a detective in Poland are both doing well.

The demise of Communism in Hungary in 1989 and the advent of capitalism has resulted in changes including a wider array of goods in the shops, but access is available only to the better-off, and ideological pressures on women have disappeared only to be replaced by economic ones. Hungary is still a male-dominated society. Hungarian women earn about 70% as much as men, and are underskilled. The ruling parties' women's groups prefer women to remain in the home to keep unemployment down. Women are encouraged by Nationalists to have large families, and abortion rights have been eroded.