A second-grade class is assigned an essay titled “What I Want to Be When I Grow Up,” and pupils Anusiak, Konieczko, Maślana, and Czesio spend the evening pouring their dreams onto paper. The next morning, as they proudly carry their essays past fortune-teller Jowita’s parlor, she unexpectedly reveals each of their futures thirty years hence, and none of her visions match what they wrote.

Adaś Miauczyński, a Polish intellectual, has severe alcohol problems which affect his relationship with his son Sylwek.