Plot Summary

Based on the novel by Jáchym Topol. Potok works as a set designer in a small theater. He is in his thirties and his life is essentially going nowhere. He views his surroundings and himself with contempt. His aimless life only changes when he meets Černá. The couple in love escapes from the city. Inevitably, however, they once again encounter human calculation, shallowness, and bad taste. Potok falls back into his former skepticism, which leads to the total breakdown of their relationship. Černá leaves him, and a desperate Potok slowly comes to a more conciliatory attitude toward the world, where there is no longer any place for great love and dark romance. Unlike Jáchym Topol's literary work of the same name, which takes place during the three years after 1989, the film ignores the time frame. It focuses on the hero's internal conflicts, which are timeless.