Zdena, a young nurse, starts her first night shift at an old people’s home and immediately faces a difficult task: she has to deal with the body of a deceased client. A gentle portrait of faltering youth and a realistic tale of an encounter with death in a blend of physically intense moments and absurd humour.
Libor, a former teacher, enjoys a well-paid position as a bank manager, living in a luxurious villa outside Prague. His business partners are taken into custody and the authorities have a few questions for him to answer. Rather than wait around, he decides to take off to Moravia with his wife and two children. In the process, he pretends that everything is normal, rediscovers the value of family life, meets up with a former colleague lost in provincial obscurity, and becomes the object of a manhunt. Libor is not a criminal type, merely someone who signs cheques and is drawn into a business world failing to recognise its own criminality (he doesn’t even flee the country).
The Horváth family is a Romani family with seven children, and the story begins with the tragic death of the father. His wife, Vera, is suddenly in a fight with the authorities, determined to keep her large family together at all costs, but she is hopelessly ill-prepared for the task. They are evicted from their home and her case-Vera versus the city-finds its way to a young, ambitious lawyer. She doesn't know the world of the Romani, nor is she particularly interested in it. Initially she takes the case as a springboard for her career. Despite her prejudices, incomprehension and sometimes Vera herself, she doesn't abandon the case. Luckily she is not the only one who sides with the family. There is a social worker whose attempts to help the Horváths are also motivated by his entirely private interest in the attractive lawyer.