Student Eva (Jana Bousková) is dashing up a steep slope to try to catch a bus, but she twists her ankle and the bus doesn't wait. There won't be another bus until the next day, and so Eva returns to her parents' cottage where she has been studying by herself for several days. She finds the door open, and inside a young man, Dusan (Jan Hrusínský), who behaves as if he were at home. Eva is a little scared and so she pretends to be a chance passerby who can't go any further because of her injured ankle. The boy offers her a bed for the night. He also fetches some plum brandy, they drink toasts to each other, and Eva starts to play Patience.