Wait Until the Oak Loses Its Leaves

An innkeeper pours rum to young peasant Čupera. The more Čupera drinks, the more his house and his farm fall apart. – Čupera was already completely in debt, and his wife Julinka had begged him several times to choose between her and drinking. – In a neglected field, the farmer is visited by the quite polite Devil. He promises to give the alcoholic four times more harvest for a thing that he has at home and does not know about. – Čupera meets a midwife at the doorstep, who tells him that his new born son Jeník is with his mother inside. – When the peasant receives the Devil's gift, he goes to hang himself in the cemetery. But the branch breaks and he shares his dark secret with the beggar Pompadůrka. The old woman covers her body in honey, rolls in feathers, Čupera sits on her back and rides her towards the devil who has saddled up the fox. According to the original agreement, the bureaucratical Devil returns the contract to Čupera, because the human arrived in a more original way than he did. – But the peasant starts drinking again. Eventually, he calls the Devil again to save him from drinking. In exchange for a cure, he promises to give his soul "when the leaves fall from the oak." Čupera a medical examination and then a challenging rehab in the Hell (in a cabaret and in the prison where he had to turn the pater-noster handle). – Čupera starts a new and better life and is planning a second child. When the Devil comes for him in autumn, he shows him an oak branch, from which dry leaves fall only in spring, when new ones blossom. The Devil angrily tears the oak leaves from the tree. – Čupera's daughter is born, but he refuses to celebrate with a drink. He says that he will drink "when the leaves fall from the oak".