The story takes place in Czechoslovakia in 1987. The father has defected to England and the mother and her son are planning to leave the country to reunite with him. The film is told through the eyes of the fourteen year old boy, his rankled look without the veneer of experience and initiation in one day. Autobiographical.

Czechoslovakia, 1941. As the war continues, Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich arrives in Nazi-occupied Prague and establishes a regime of terror that will force freedom fighters to act. But the price to pay will be too high.

Sylvie marries an only child who is strongly emotionally attached to his mother. His mother, Alžběta, cannot imagine losing her son Hynek, a young doctor, or sharing him with his wife. Therefore, she first tries to prevent the marriage, and when she fails, she tries to break up her son's marriage. Sylvia, the daughter-in-law, experiences firsthand the struggle with her mother-in-law over her son and her husband. She naturally wonders whether a man who, at the age of 35, is unable to stand up to his mother deserves a wife or just pity...