A teacher is handing out examination results to his students in an industrial school and he points out to them that work is the most important thing in a person's life. Karel is pleased with his results but Vláďa's are bad. During the holidays Karel goes off to a factory to get work experience. Vláďa prefers to laze about and read poetry. In the end, however, he decides to follow Karel's example. At first the work doesn't agree with him, but after a few days, he gets used to it and finally he is glad to be able to work in the factory. One day he is injured at work and in hospital he has time to think about his future. He tells Karel, who visits him in hospital, that he has decided not to carry on with studies which don't interest him. He feels he will be more useful if he stays on at the factory.

Leopold Kohák married a rich widow a long time ago and now has nothing to do compared to his energetic wife. He's growing old and troubled by the fact that he betrayed his first love Emča and his beloved river Sázava where he spent his childhood and youth. A visit from an old friend Lebeda brings it all back to him. After a nervous breakdown Leopold secretly visits his home instead of going to the spa. A wandering tramp suggest Leopold should bathe in the magical waters of the Sázava, and slowly his youth returns to him.

An ambitious and selfish lawyer confesses to the murder of his first wife. Some of the scenes were filmed in the last weeks of the war.