Businessman Karel Bočan is a swindler who writes down the debts of his victims in a green notebook. He is stopped by an observant boy who reveals the fraudster and dealer in stolen goods in it.

The revolutionary year of 1848 brought great hopes among the hitherto silent classes, awakening social and national hopes. The response also penetrated the remote countryside, even as far as the Podkrkonoše Mountains. The young shoemaker there began to take an interest in social and political events, and he also experienced disappointment in later developments.