"My verdict is : I, Olga Hepnarová, the victim of your bestiality, sentence you to death penalty." Those were the famous words of the 22-year-old mass murderer Olga Hepnarová, who in 1973 drove a truck into a group of innocent people in Prague.

The film tells the life story of its director, Jan Nemec, one of the most known and important filmmakers of Czech New Wave.

Count Frank Kostka, his wife Vivien and their daughter Marie live in their ancestral castle Kostka. The housekeeper Mrs. Ticha, the maintenance man Krasa and the castellan Josef help them keep the castle running. The original interest of visitors in the castle in the curse of the Comtesse Marie is not as strong as it used to be, which doesn't bother Marie at all - at least she has enough time for her Max, a nobleman from the neighbouring castle Hvezda. But Frank is at a loss, there is neither enough money for salaries nor for the necessary repairs. Just then, Deniska, the daughter of Benda's lawyer, appears and stirs up the calm waters of the family mansion...