Lorry driver Martin (Frantisek Peterka) drops into a shoe repair shop one day and it strikes him that the small, quiet cobbler Lájosek Cína (Václav Kotva) can't possibly be happy there. He decides that the cobbler ought to become his driver's mate, and so he gives in Cína's notice to his boss on his behalf. The smiling and amenable man accepts his new life without protest. Because he had previously been sleeping in the workshop, Martin finds him lodgings in a colony of small houses in Krejcárek with his girlfriend Magda, the mother of four small girls. Magda (Jaroslava Vyslouzilová), who belongs to everyone and no one, gets to like living with the altruistic Lájosek, who immediately declares himself the father of her daughters.