Plot Summary

Andula works on the floor of a shoe factory in the provincial Czechoslovakian town of Zruc, and like most of her colleagues is young and female - the age and gender disparity due to conscription sending the young men into the military - and lives in the factory's hostel. She is somewhat innocent and naive when it comes to issues with the opposite sex, she easily falling in love or infatuation, such as with her current boyfriend Tonda, or reliving thoughts about a brief non-sexual encounter with a forest ranger. To boost morale among his young, female employees, the factory manager arranges for a social between them and a group of military reservists. While the social progresses to a point where it seems that she, and her two friends, Jana and Marie, are going to go off with three older and in their minds not really desirable reservists, Andula instead is whisked off by Milda, the Prague-based pianist who was playing with the musical combo at the social and who could witness the goings-on from his unique vantage point. While Andula doesn't totally trust Milda, she does end up spending the night with him. What is purely pillow talk on Milda's part, Andula takes as gospel. As such in combination with a talk to all the girls by their housemother, Andula unilaterally makes the decision to head to Prague to reunite with Milda, in the process she getting a life lesson about sexual relations among the young.—Huggo