[4] Honzík, a young Czech, falls in love with Käthe, a German nurse, during his time as a forced labourer in Germany.
[4][6] Ročník 21's original official distributor presented it as follows:[7] The generation born in the early 1920s suffered great misfortune - during the occupation they were forced to work in the Reich.
The young men worked there in grueling conditions, clearing the debris of air raids.
But they were not ruled by blind hatred: one of the heroes was overwhelmed while trying to save a small child, and in the hospital he met a sympathetic German nurse, obviously anti-Nazi.
[10][11] Audiences' response in East Germany is said to have been "reserved" but "Walter Ulbricht praised the movie".