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Anuška Klímová rejects the attentions of rich landowner Topol - a coarse and violent man. The girl is in love with Karel Nebeský. The gamekeeper Novák catches a thief red-handed on the estate. Topol makes use of this turn of events by allowing him to escape and telling the gamekeeper to plant the bag full of stolen items in Karel's cottage. The game keeper is given a bonus in his pay as a reward so that he can marry his girlfriend Vlasta. Karel is arrested and sentenced. Anuška, whose father owes money to Topol, is forced into marriage with the landowner. In prison Karel has fed his hatred of all people and, on his release, he builds a log cabin in the woods and lives there alone with his faithful dog. His female company is short-lived. Helena, a girl from the town, lives with him for a while out of a longing for some kind of adventure but she soon goes off with a rich dandy.
On his first day in a new place, waiter Josef Kučera stands up for his old servant Bartoš and bellhop Svát. His actions earn him the distrust of the café owner Stýbl, the admiration of the maid Jindřiška, and the hatred of her suitor, the waiter Vacek. One evening, Kučera overhears a strange conversation between two guests and confides in the editor of Rudý právo Rokos. When a scandal breaks out about the bank robbery of the minister's son-in-law Zakhar, Rokos deduces from the conversation that it was a fake robbery...
A student work by Jiří Menzel, filmed during his second year at the FAMU film school. Views of old Prague and its tenement buildings, symbolizing the obsolete past, alternate with shots of construction sites for new prefabricated apartment buildings. In spite of certain unavoidable propagandistic overtones added by the director, it is notable as the beginning of his search for a “dramaturgy of colors.”
