Tearful Eyes

The well-kept sixty-year-old Mrs Irena publishes the following advertisement: Villa for sale. Sign: To the highest offer. The greengrocer Hedváb is highly interested in the villa, but Mrs Irena has been jerking him around for a year already. One day, the woman pretends to be dying and asks Hedváb to give her a cab ride through Prague. She also wants to visit a flat in a commonplace block of flats where she reportedly once spends moments of love. A young couple, the Špičkas, and their three daughters are crammed in the small flat. Irena submits more and more requirements to Hedváb concerning the villa sale: she wants the Špičkas flat and twenty thousand crowns in addition. But the Špičkas are high-principled people and consistently turn down all Hedváb's suggestions. The greengrocer does not give up. He even takes care of the villa for free, doing all the housework there just to prove he is the right buyer. He has no idea that Irena has been speculating with the villa for years and misusing its renters to maintain it. Mr Špička would love to have a son, and thus agrees with the new Hedváb's proposal: Irena will move to their flat, the Špičkas will move to Hedváb's flat, and Hedváb and his family will move to the villa. Apart from Irena, they all try to realize the exchange as quickly as possible. The greengrocer steals on a large scale in order to provide for the family and divorces his wife for effect so that they were entitled to two flat units in the villa. Irena must take in her old aunt because even the Špičkas' small flat is too big for her according to the official regulations. The Špička family is looking forward to the spacious place because Mrs Špičková is pregnant. On D-Day, however, Irena calls the moving enterprise off without warning. Hedváb remarries his wife but is taken away from the wedding by some detectives. Mrs Špičková delivers triplets - two boys and a girl. After some time, Irena visits the Špičkas but they throw her out. They received a new large flat. Irena is even abandoned by her old friend and there she is, with tearful eyes and all alone as predicted. But she soon publishes a new advertisement: Villa for sale.