During the First World War, the crooks Scholef and Krumka sell weapons on the black market. After the collapse of the monarchy they try their hand at speculation on a grand scale.
In an unusual, apolitical approach, director Jaromil Jires has fashioned a standard drama that features an older lawyer with failing health who goes to practice in the countryside. His series of odd court cases reveals more about the human condition than about law. In one of these litigations a wayward nephew has cheated his elderly aunt out of her savings. In court, the nephew insists the money was a gift, but his aunt explains she only gave him the money as a loan. Although the lawyer technically wins the case, everything of value seems lost in the meantime. His services are paid for in rabbits because the aunt has no currency, and in the end, the nephew cons his aunt into parting with her savings anyway. Other cases expose similar types of petty corruption.
The sore and tender hearts of a young couple with a toddler are explored in this drama. The little girl, four years old, is not aware that she is doing anything distressing while she ambles about the house on the day after a post-examination celebration by her father, a university student. Even though hung over, he tries hard to be patient with her. The beginning of the story follows her on her little adventures. The girl comes down with a fever, which kills her before anything can be done, and the student and his photographer wife mourn and comfort one another. Little encounters with children cause the mother pain she is seldom free of, until she gives birth to their next child, a son.
Пан Кроупа, работающий на заводе сельскохозяйственных машин, очень хочет занять должность оператора новой линии в специально для нее строящемся цеху. Однако, у него есть серьезный конкурент — пан Гуер. Который пытается добиться ее всеми правдами и неправдами. Проблема, тем не менее, в том, что ни тот, ни другой эту должность получить не могут. Поскольку у них обоих нет среднего образования, что является непременным условием.
