In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival trying to save from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son, seeking to give him a proper Jewish burial.

The satiric film, interlarded with burlesque elements is the caricature of the petty bourgeois. The hero, Kotlár spends even his holiday with his boss by jogging, in order to learn whether he will be nominated for head of department or not.