The Black Feather Group

The year is 1917, the third year of the World War. Many people are stricken with poverty and hunger. Karel, the eldest son of the bricklayer Světlan has been called up to the front and his mother exchanges his coat for a bag of rotting potatoes to help feed her two younger sons - Rudla and Ládík. Her boys are playing with four other children from their Plzeň suburb on an army training ground. They try to make soup out of a deadly wounded crow they have found, but they first have to wrestle the bird from a competing group from Skvrňany. They make a solemn promise on the crow's feather and become a gang. They lure a she-goat out of the nearby army garrison and drink its milk. One evening Karel shows up at home, having deserted from the frontline. He is on his way to Prague to "bring down the monarchy", together with another deserter. Fortunately they don't get caught by the army police. One of the boys, Bertík, loses his father in the War. The boys take revenge one night by flooding the workshop at the munitions' factory with the water from an open hydrant. During the final winter of the War, Ládík becomes very ill. Fortunately he is taken to the hospital and his life is saved. After he is discharged from the hospital, the boys force him to drink goat's milk to help him recover, despite his strong protests. The War ends, and the First Czechoslovak Republic is established. People rejoice but the boys have other worries. The she-goat is gone, but the clever youngsters find other nanny goats to replace the one that has gone missing. Ládík protests loudly but in vain; he must drink the milk.