A story of a young woman arrested by police on the day of her wedding for embezzlement, and promptly sentenced to life. She is already pregnant and has her baby in prison. Immediately after birth they are separated and only later Klara finds out that the child had a spine injury in an orphanage. After the years her sentence is shortened and she is released from prison on parole after 12 years.

The story begins in March of 1968, the days of students protests. A hot- headed student protests the Dean's decision to expell a fellow student on fake accusation charges, upon which he drops out of university rather than make a compromise. He loses everything in the process: his girlfriend, housing privileges - he becomes a coal deliverer. On the job he witnesses an accident that causes death of a fellow worker. He decides to write a story, which is good and a publishing house wants to print it, but only after some corrections are made. He refuses again and the story is not printed. Finally, a story is commercialized and made into a succesful film and brings fame to the original author.

Kinga, a divorced woman raising her daughter Emilka, decides to change her professional life and start writing a book. Personal matters and problems with finding common ground with her child, however, throw her off balance.