The problem of companionship marriages , i.e. marriages determined by purely practical rather than emotional motives, is addressed with all its pros and cons using two relationships . The four protagonists are the student Erich Helmholz and his wife Elli, a seamstress, both a happily married but not in love couple, and the consultant's daughter Maria, who comes from the best "stable" and who, in her ignorance, first allows herself to be impregnated by any man (without really understanding how this could have happened) and then, under pressure from her horrified parents, enters into a companionship marriage with another man who has brilliant career prospects.

Country girl Helena falls in love with an artist painting the local village scenery and one evening she lets herself be seduced by him. The artists leaves but soon invites Helena to Prague where they make love again. Helena then returns home to her sick father and refuses the constant attentions of the gamekeeper Rýza. After some time she realizes that she is pregnant. Since she knows that the artist will not marry her, she goes to visit her aunt who takes her to an abortionist. When the girl returns home after the abortion she discovers her father has died. The opportunist aunt sees her chance and moves in with Helena and persuades her to marry Rýza.