Mr. Ondřej longs for a bride, but he doesn't like any of them. When he discovers a picture of a girl at the market from the painter Matěj, he is literally enchanted at first sight. He therefore takes off his gentleman's coat and intends to find the girl at all costs. However, Matěj leads Mr. Ondřej by the nose. The desired girl in the picture is Rozárka, his own daughter, and he is not sure of the strength of Ondřej's feelings. Before the fairy tale reaches a happy ending and a wedding, the young man must undergo many trials.

A budding teacher comes from Prague to the South Bohemian district town where her fiancé Jakub, a young promising engineer at the local paper mill, lives. Petra is getting to know her new colleagues at school and the children in her new class, and is practicing hard with the Komenium music group, whose members she has known since her studies. She also gets to know Jakub's colleagues and the director of the paper mill, to whose position Jakub would like to be appointed after his retirement. It is this desire for a high position that leads Jakub to behave and act in a way that Petra cannot approve of.

The film is set in the 1840s. A charming village girl, Rozina, falls in love with a farmhand, Martin. However, a local madwoman, who secretly loves Martin, reveals the location of their meetings to Rozina's father, who banishes Martin and marries Rozina to the son of a rich farmer against her will. Disappointed, Martin joins a gang of smugglers. The fates of all the characters inevitably lead to tragedy...