A Ridiculous Gentleman

Sixty-year old Professor Simek (Vladimir Smeral) is undergoing a serious heart operation. The surgeon Preclik is satisfied with the result, and after the successful operation he and his patient become famous. Simek is, however, indifferent to fame, since the years have robbed him of energy and taste for life. In the 1950s, during the campaign against supposed enemies of the communist regime, he was unjustly condemned to many years of imprisonment. His wife, daughter and friends have abandoned him, and his academic career was ruined. From the window of his hospital room it is only sick children that catch his melancholy eye, and a charming girl who releases carrier pigeons from a basket on the roof of the house opposite. One day she fails to appear on the roof. The professor is disturbed, sure that something must have happened to the girl. He goes out into the street in his hospital gown, even though he is well aware that too much strain could kill him.