In a Fix

Six months after their wedding Růžena and Vojta Koskuba are about to get divorced. The young couple evidently still love each other but they are divided by an irreconcilable dispute. Both work as teachers. The talented artist Růžena has also agreed to illustrate the school atlas of trees. She thus asks Vojta to do his share of the housework. He refuses and so the flat starts to look neglected. The presiding judge Macek has been living with his wife Žofie for the last twenty years in a happy marriage; he decides to try and bring the two back together. The agreement they finally reach has little effect and, after an argument, Vojta leaves home. After a while he returns but Růžena is not there. The holidays have begun and the Maceks have invited her to their country cottage. Here she discovers the essence of the Maceks' happy marriage. Žofie is a housewife and she does everything to please her husband. Vojta arrives at the country cottage determined to put Růžena off her idea of divided household responsibilities once and for all. He finds an opportunity since Mrs Macková is standing in for a teacher who has fallen ill at the local kindergarten and Růžena has to continue drawing for the Atlas. Vojta ostentatiously washes the stairs and the dishes and darns socks, singing as he goes. He gets Macek to help him and when they both manage to ruin the washing, they both realize that household chores are not as easy as they look. It seems that, in the interest of their marriages, both men are going to have to become more active around the house.