In this character study by Czech director Frantisek Vlacil, a stout middle-aged physician whose marriage has come apart establishes a practice in a small town. Gradually he's drawn into the lives of his patients—a childless couple, a pregnant girl with a stern mother, the son of a duck farmer—and each relationship reveals a bit more about him and the idyllic but insular community.
On the holidays, ten years old Adam and his little sister Otka, four years junior to him, travel from a village Vykán to their aunt to Prague. Their parents left for Hungary to the world championship in ploughing. The children have the address but they do not know the way to the Northern Town. They set out for a place on foot, across the historical parts of the town.
Five years old Johnny is going for his first journey with no parents.
