It is the 1920's. The good-looking hostess Věra demonstrates household robots to visitors of the Futurum exhibition. Young inventor Petr comes to her rescue when she tries to flee from two men wanting to take her away. Věra confesses that she has fled from home because her father, a factory owner, wanted to profitably marry her off. Petr is fascinated by the emancipated woman and shows her round his laboratory, where he plans to create a robot of his own - but one that would be far more advanced. Věra cuts herself on a broken test-tube and a drop of her blood gets in the solution. In the morning, they are taken aback to see Věra's double. This lucky chance has helped Petr create an artificial being, Miss Golem. She has a single motive for her actions: to take care of Věra and allow her to do only what is good for her.
The young Prince Charles (Jaromír Hanzlík), the future King of his country Charles IV, is being educated at the French court in the company of his fiancée Blanche (Daniela Kolárová). One day he receives a summons from his father John of Luxembourg (Milos Kopecký) in Italy. He leaves for Italy accompanied by a deputation from Bohemia. On the way the prince's company fights a battle with armed Milanese against heavy odds. Thanks to Charles's perspicacity, the prince's almost naked soldiers win through. In Lucca in Italy Charles joins his father, and here he experiences an amorous adventure and escapes from the traps laid by the Italian rebels.
The bickering of envious mistresses, the criminal intentions of fraudsters and the love of two young people are at the center of events, in the middle of which unfolds the fate of the city executioner Jiří, who longs to break free from his destiny and become a proper burgher. He is not heard, but he manages to expose the iniquities and their culprits, reunites a hard-pressed couple in love and his undeniable merits for the city and eventually bring him luck.
The River of Life and Death captures the slow time in the well-known Indian pilgrimage place of Benares, the act of purification by water, the burning funeral pyres, and the dandling snakeheads under the temple stairs.