An ambulance is taking a patient from a large half-built housing estate to the resuscitation unit. Foreman Frantisek Pelant has had a heart attack right on the work site. The young crane-operator Hedvika, until recently his girlfriend, carries on Frantisek`s efforts to deal with irregularities in the running of the building works and in the factory supplying the prefabricated components. She persuades the veteran communist Zábrana to help her and together they initiate negotiations in the highest organs of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.