Country girl Helena falls in love with an artist painting the local village scenery and one evening she lets herself be seduced by him. The artists leaves but soon invites Helena to Prague where they make love again. Helena then returns home to her sick father and refuses the constant attentions of the gamekeeper Rýza. After some time she realizes that she is pregnant. Since she knows that the artist will not marry her, she goes to visit her aunt who takes her to an abortionist. When the girl returns home after the abortion she discovers her father has died. The opportunist aunt sees her chance and moves in with Helena and persuades her to marry Rýza.
Andrea, a beautiful daughter of a railway gateman, is seduced by a rich passenger, who missed his train. Left pregnant, Andrea marries another man and moves to Prague, only to encounter her former lover and recover her former lust.
The troubled situation of a provincial actor and his actress wife who come to the city. The actor is suspected of attacking another actor who admires the actress.
The film depicts the adventures of Kacenka (Zdena Kavková) and Vincek (Vlasta Burian), two innocent country bumpkins who live in a Czech small town, and the various jobs that Kacenka has once she moves to Prague, that beautiful capital city. Our heroine will have to bear difficult working conditions and to make things worse, she falls in love with a fake aristocrat. Fortunately her companion, Vincek who is also in Prague, has an unrequited love for her. Though he is the cause of many Kacenka's problems, Vincek finally will help and resolve her loves troubles. And of course there is a happy ending that brings the Czech couple together.
The tale of the Venetian gondolier whose desire for revenge following a thwarted love affair leads him to Bohemia. The intricate plot also deals with destinies of other characters, who finally come together in a dramatic encounter at one time and in one place. In his role as screenwriter and director, Anton produced a highly accomplished version of Mácha’s work. He respected the original but was also able, along with the DoP Karel Kopřiva, to capitalise on the possibilities that the film medium offered. For the Venice prologue, the filmmakers exploited the photogenic qualities of the city – the narrow streets, the lagoons, gondolas and the sea – and they moved the set to the enigmatic Czech landscape around the castle of Kokořín.
During a pogrom against Jews in a village, an innkeeper is killed, his daughter is put in a convent after being crucified, and her illegitimate child, who later grows up to be a student, is placed in the care of a guardian.
