The story of Czech pilots in RAF service during the Battle of Britain, and the ongoing aerial battle in Northern Europe. It tells the story of the crews of the RAF’s No. 311 Squadron, which was mainly crewed by escaped Czech airmen, and their bombing raids during the Second World War.

Engineer Jan Sebek (Jan Kacer) is undergoing treatment in a mental home after his unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide. His therapist, via discussions both with the patient and with people who know him, tries to find out what made the young and seemingly satisfied man decide to end his own life. Jan's pretty wife Jana (Jana Brejchová) claims not to know about anything but she is conducting an affair with a family friend, almost publicly and with the blessing of her parents.

The story takes place at the time when Giacomo Casanova, probably the most famous conqueror of women, held the position of librarian at the Valdštejn castle in Duchcov. He was then a rather bored and grumpy old man who enjoyed only writing his memoirs and then a daily game of cards with the Count. But all that changed when Wallenstein's young nephew František Adam arrived at the chateau with his charming wife Valeria. She wanted to see the famous seducer with her own eyes. However, she was somewhat disappointed by the reality, as well as by the seducer's outdated views on love.

Young prisoner Jan, nicknamed Roughboy (Petr Cepek), tries to commit suicide. He was imprisoned for a fight in which he injured a functionary of the National Committee and for stealing material but actually by the blame for this crime was pinned on him by the road-builders in whose group he worked. The prison doctor knows that Jan is an emotionally deprived person who never knew his parents and spent all his childhood - except one year with foster-parents - in orphanages, homes for youth and reform schools. He arranges a five-day holiday for Jan, who wants to find his mother's grave.