The hero of the story is the writer Vladimír Tůma, who is invited to spend a month studying in a neighbouring country. There, the foreign office assigns him a guide, Irena Stepowska. The two young people are attracted to each other, but there is a catch - Vladimír is married, Irena is married....
We learn that the greatest virtue of socialist competition is collective cooperation. This is what the young, physically fit assembler refuses to understand. He suspects his co-workers of overlooking his merits out of jealousy. And it takes him a long time to understand that the individual alone...
