Sonata for a Red-Haired Girl

The fifteen-year-old red-haired Petra is an excellent goalkeeper on the football team of her schoolmates. Her mother would rather see her practising her piano playing; Petra is definitely talented, but lacks the diligence. She also is a scoutmistress for a group of young scouts - the Marmots. The teacher at the music school, Knipl, complains about Petra's repeated absences from piano lessons. When she is grounded, her classmate Michal gets her out by making up a story about a school event to salvage scrap paper. Michal likes Petra, but she obviously fancies their self-confident schoolmate Pavel, who has recently moved to town from Prague. Led by the pharmacist and scoutmaster Tom, members of the school clubs leave for their log cabin. In the countryside, they compete for the Great Prize of the Frog Brook. Petra is the best amongst the girls in the difficult cross country run through the woods with a number of trials. Pavel also competes, but he only wins in the boys' category by having skipped the crawling event. Petra knows that he cheated and when the offence comes out, she and Pavel are punished by having to wash pots. Back in town, however, Pavel starts favouring the class beauty, Markéta. Petra's wise grandfather persuades her to devote more time to music. Petra starts working hard to rehearse a difficult piece. She is to play at a football tournament a couple of days before the concert, but in the end, the tournament is rescheduled to the day of the concert. Petra misses the last bus after the football game. She makes a motorcyclist give her a ride, but the mischievous man then refuses to stop for her at the crossroads. Petra jumps off the motorcycle and is seriously injured. With her leg broken, she now cannot leave for summer camp. The devoted Michal, however, stays in town with her and drives her to the railway station in a pram so that she can wave goodbye to her friends.