This feature film based on the events of 1938 is a chronicle of the futile efforts of the Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes (Jirí Pleskot), politicians and ordinary citizens, to save the independence and the territorial integrity of the state from the advance of Hitler's Germany. On the 29th of March 1938 the leader of the Sudeten Germans Henlein (Werner Ehrlicher) has a meeting with Hitler (Gunnar Möller). Hitler orders him to intensify pressure on the Czechoslovak government. On the 24th of April in Carlsbad, the Sudetendeutsche Partei (Sudeten German Party) decides upon eight demands that are unacceptable to the Czechoslovak President, since they would ultimately lead to the break-up of the Republic. Benes still shows a certain willingness to negotiate, and Henlein resents this. The Germans are determined to make further negotiations impossible through incidents and violence.
Tóna Bohácek (Pavel Landovský) has been a great worry to his mother, Mrs Bohácková (Stella Zázvorková). All his friends equal in age are already married and some of them even have children - only Tóna still has nothing. Mother Bohácková thus publishes an ad in the Lonely Hearts column on behalf of her son. From among the girls who responded, she picks out Janicka, a girl from the neighboring village, and then forces Tóna to go to have a look at her and bring her home. The date of the two young people, however, does not turn out well due to the embarrassment on both sides, and Tóna returns home drowning in the feeling of ridiculousness. On the way, he picks up hitchhiker Kveta (Regina Rázlová) from Prague. Only then, he realizes that the mother with her festive dinner is waiting for him and Janicka at home and thus asks Kveta to substitute for the girl from the ad.