Soon after World War One, veterans of the conflict trek through the countryside as beggars, tramps and musicians. Two of them, the clarinetist Hejges and theologian Krujbel are looking for a new home, but keep trekking round anyway. Hejges falls in love with the young widow Paula, who misses someone to talk to because her servant is a deaf-mute. They visit an annual fair together. His clarinet has already been stolen and at the fair she is robbed of her money.Lalie polné was banned for twenty years in Czechoslovaia because the authorities regarded it as an ode to doing nothing and that was not in accordance with communist teaching.
