The prevailing pitiful economic situation affects the lives of many people. Professor Václav Junek (Frantisek Smolík) gradually realizes that his idealistic notions differ considerably from the real life of his four children. The despairing father is finally persuaded of the aptness of an allegory he reads in one of his students' essays where the situation of young people is compared to that of shipwreck survivors; they are driven onto an iceberg by the wind and waves and now face an uncertain and dark sea.