The Optimist

During the harvest, the slim and bespectacled student Jirka arrives alone at the village of Vltavany instead of the impatiently expected team of five. Immediately upon getting off the bus, Jirka finds out in front of the bemused villagers that he has exchanged his luggage with somebody. The local girl Marie begins to take care of him. The square-built tractor-driver Jéna, hitherto considered Marie's official wooer, finds it hard to bear her caring for another man. He takes Jirka as a helper to his reaper-binder and begins to torture him in all possible ways. But he keeps running into the boy's optimism and his will not to give in. The tension of the love triangle escalates and Marie, despite Jirka's declaration of love, returns to Jéna. When the harvest festival is celebrated in the local pub, the two young men begin to fight and Jirka, shattered, is left lying on the hill outside the village. The next day, Jéna does not find him in his room and gets scared. He wakes up the villagers and they all set off to find the youth. To Jéna's relief, Jirka is found waiting at the bus stop - the student's working party is over and everybody makes a friendly farewell to him.