Vilém Pfeiffer

A successful scientist dares to openly and forcefully criticize the unproductive activities of the institute in which he works. He draws attention to outdated procedures and also to the fact that scientific work must not fall into the abyss of mediocrity and everyday grayness, so typical of the entire society. Will his career withstand this situation?

The opera lady singer Ema Destinnová is in all her splendor at the American stages. But in Europe there rages war and she decides to return home to Bohemia.

A young poet and dreamer, poor as a church mouse, discovers that he is to inherit a vast fortune from his very wealthy, dying uncle. However, there is one catch to the inheritance - the property can only be obtained on the condition that the young man marries a virgin on the day of his uncle's funeral.

After many decades in Germany, Marie Hahn will come to Prague to meet her relatives and friends. She learns unflattering information about her husband's behaviour during the German occupation, she suffers health problems, but even her daughter is not interested in helping her mother...

The story takes place in a retirement home and creates a mosaic of the lives of old people who are trying to find a relationship with themselves and with life in these specific conditions. Each of its residents has a distinctive approach to life and its basic values. The most interesting features of the title, which is marked by a visibly cold production approach, are the worthy performances of the actors of the older generation. Some of them appeared in front of the camera after many years and unfortunately for the last time.

It all started when the family of a rich farmer, Stanek, moved to a small village and his daughter Liduška fell in love with a poor violinist, Toník. However, her parents did not approve of her love and decided to marry her to the son of the landowner Krejzová, even though the girl rejected the unsympathetic man. When her parents did not back down, Liduška was determined to run away with Toník, but when she learned that her beloved had been called up for military service, in despair she gave in to her parents' pressure and agreed to the wedding...

The generally respected director of a small-town savings bank, Hlavsa, commits embezzlement because of his wasteful and spoiled wife, and when the situation cannot be saved, he shoots himself. His mother, a simple village woman, takes in her widowed daughter-in-law and teenage grandson on the condition that they both help her to compensate for all the damage. For the city lady, the hard village work is suffering. The same goes for young Bořík, a gifted pianist who finds it difficult to give up his dreams of an artistic career...

Orphaned Zdeňka Štěpánová helps her foster parents in Moravia at an inn. One day she learns that she is to be taken in by the owner of a toy factory, Miloš Kavan, who will fulfill her father's last wish. At the same time that Kavan and his housekeeper Mrs. Julie are expecting Zdeňka, their caretaker's little niece Hanička arrives. Mrs. Julie initially considers her her protégé, because she has no idea that Zdeňka is already a grown-up girl...

Five crime stories connected by the narration of police superintendent Bartosek.

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.

Inspector Cadek from the 13th police station keeps an eye on the released safe-cracker nicknamed The Cat. He rightly suspects that Cat will go and pick up his last loot which the police didn't manage to find and that he will want revenge on Karta who helped put him behind bars. At the hospital, Cat's ex-lover Fróny hopelessly falls for doctor Chrudimský and decides to start a new life. She still refuses to help the inspector in his search for The Cat and Karta.

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.

Two good friends return from long-term military service: Jan Cimbura from Semic and Josef Piksa from Putim. Piksa farms on his own, Cimbura accepts service with the Hradiště farmer and mayor of Kovanda. The farmhand Cimbura is a real treasure for the farm. He is strong and hardworking, he doesn't drink or smoke. He can keep his eyes on the girl Marjánka, and Cimbura likes her too. However, Cimbura doesn't want to and cannot marry. First, he wants to become independent, and that may take years....