The film responds to the housing shortage that young couples in particular have had to deal with. This problem is also addressed by the couple Slávka and Olda. The girl gets a sublet on Hradčanské náměstí, in the large flat of the widowed pensioner Benda. Benda lived almost his whole life there, and is bound to the apartment by a thousand memories and feelings. The strange and sickly old man has to overcome his crankiness and distrust of people before he fully accepts his lodger and her husband "as his own"...

A poor miner, Kuba Dařbuján, cares for his wife Markýtka and eleven children. When a newborn arrives, he seeks a godfather and, finding only Death fair to all, accepts a pact: as a doctor whom Death accompanies at the foot of a patient’s bed, he can heal; but if Death stands at the head, no cure is possible. Kuba eventually heals even a miserly brewer, violating the pact and imprisoning Death, leading to a world where no one can die and unforeseen chaos follows.