Filmed during the Nazi occupation, this panoramic drama set in a Prague department store follows the divergent destinies of four female coworkers, each of whom seeks happiness in a different way.
Even the pre-Blohemian times were not idyllic. Even a bachelor, invited by the consuls to Rakovník to elevate the local education system, finds out. But the stingy and proud townspeople soon grow to dislike him, and even love does not develop according to his wishes.
Josef Houbička, the owner of the U pěti veverek apartment building in Malostran, is a kind and forgiving good man who allows himself to be ruthlessly oppressed by his proud wife, Filoména, and secretly fixes her problems with the tenants. He lends rent money to two poor painters and bribes...