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A new year begins, and with it a new chapter in Anna Holubová’s life. The one just ending was far from her happiest: left alone with two children, Anna decides on a change. She leaves the self-service shop she had been managing and takes a job at the delicatessen counter of a large grocery store on the opposite side of the city. Slowly she gets to know her new colleagues and new surroundings — and soon realizes that not everything here is quite as it should be. Unused to making peace with wrongdoing, she throws herself into a fight for what’s right, with the quiet but enthusiastic backing of the other staff, taking on none other than the deputy manager’s own wife.

A customer returns to the delicatessen counter, and as Anna helps him choose what to buy, it’s clear the two are not indifferent to each other. Olinka decides to find out who the man is and boldly chases after him to arrange a date — which rather startles Anna. Meanwhile Jiřinka from the vegetable section, who stammers, falls for the driver who delivers the goods, and asks Anna how to make an impression on him, her greatest fear being that he’ll laugh at her stammer. That evening Anna has to smooth over a quarrel between her mother and daughter at home. The next day she learns Olinka’s date was a bust — she found the customer utterly impossible — while Jiřinka, who bought an ultra-modern sweater on credit to impress the driver, is left bitterly disappointed. Anna suggests they see a speech therapist together, but the doctor offers little hope for Jiřinka — until a chance turn of events points Anna toward another solution.

The store celebrates International Women’s Day as Easter approaches. Anna’s ex-husband Jirka turns up at the shop just as she’s talking with deputy manager Vilímek, who is plainly smitten with his new saleswoman. That evening Anna comes home to find Jirka already there — he’s brought the children expensive gifts and wants to spend Easter with them and Anna on a trip to the countryside. Anna refuses; only the children will go. Then Vilímek arrives at her home with an enormous gift basket, offers her a countryside trip of his own and all but confesses his love, claiming he’s left his wife. Anna turns him down flatly — but saleswoman Kalášková spots them talking and spreads word that Anna is involved with Vilímek. When Vilímek corners her again at the shop, Anna finally snaps and shoves him into the big refrigerator to cool off. As she leaves work that evening, her faithful customer pulls up — and he, too, invites her on an Easter outing.

Stockman Oskar and Lada, the young meat-and-cold-cuts saleswoman, are caught kissing in the storeroom by her mother. The mother makes a huge scene and drags Lada away, leaving Oskar miserable. Anna offers to drive out with him to Lada’s parents, and her unknown customer-admirer offers to take them. Lada is home alone; at first she packs a suitcase to leave with Oskar, but changes her mind on the way and returns home. Oskar is both hurt and angry. The customer drives Anna home and learns where she lives. The next day a tearful Lada comes to the shop saying her parents have thrown her out — but Oskar wants nothing to do with it.

František Dominik suddenly feels unwell at work, but it turns out the sixty-five-year-old is simply overworked. He’s still being examined at the hospital when his son-in-law, the engineer Zina, comes to collect his father-in-law’s wages — and walks off with them. It emerges by chance that old Dominik has been working evening shifts at the railway station and giving almost all the money to his daughter and son-in-law, who are by no means badly off. Manager Karas steps in and threatens Dominik with dismissal unless he gives up the station work. The disheartened Dominik advises Anna to love her children but to live her own life as well — children leave one day, and who knows, she may end up a burden to them just as he has to his daughter. Anna takes his words to heart, so when Karas offers to drive Dominik home — the old man setting off to see the sea for the first time in his life — and offers Anna a lift too, she already has another driver waiting.

Saleswoman Kalášková discovers her husband is having an affair with a girl named Barbora. She tracks down his mistress at the textile shop and makes a scene; moments later Kalášek himself arrives, sent there by Anna, and Barbora insults Kalášková so crudely that she leaves in tears. Meanwhile Anna confides to her mother that she has a new sweetheart, and her mother urges her to introduce Karel to the children too — something Anna dreads. Kalášková literally throws her husband out of the flat, changes the locks on the cottage as well, and sends their son Honzík to shame him at his workplace. Humiliated, Kalášek has no choice but to come home. Then report-card day arrives. Péťa comes to meet Anna at the shop and they leave together; outside, Brož is waiting and offers them a lift, but Péťa firmly refuses — he loves car rides, but only with his dad. And he wants his mum all to himself.

With Olinka on holiday, Anna takes on an apprentice, Zuzana, who likes to secretly nibble food here and there. Anna’s children leave for the summer, and at the station their father unexpectedly comes to see them off, which saddens Karel, who is waiting for Anna. When the two first dine at Anna’s, they’re repeatedly interrupted by her neighbour Vavřinec. Anna then meets Karel’s father, cementing her plan to introduce Karel to the children after the holidays. At work, a bottle of cognac goes missing; Zuzana denies all knowledge, and no cashier rang one up. When Anna asks to see inside her handbag, the girl refuses, offended. Soon a young man turns up claiming he forgot to pay for it the day before — but Anna knows the money came from one of Zuzana’s gang. Even so, she decides to show the girl her trust one last time.

The two cashiers are friends — older Mlynářová, a bitter and spiteful woman, and younger Soňa, whose fiancé jilted her just before the wedding a year ago. When Soňa meets taxi driver David and it turns serious, the jealous Mlynářová is furious and stops speaking to her. Meanwhile Anna introduces Karel to her mother and invites him to join her and the children in the countryside — but the visit goes badly, the children receiving him coldly despite his expensive gifts. At the shop, Soňa and David’s engagement is celebrated by all except the offended Mlynářová. When David goes to make peace, Mlynářová slanders Soňa as mentally unsound. Olina steps in and persuades Soňa to have it out with her colleague. Anna returns to work to a warm welcome, but Soňa is out of sorts; finally Olina convinces her to go to the storeroom and talk — just as David walks into the shop.

After closing time, an elderly gentleman tries to get into the shop, having forgotten to buy his dinner. Granny Kubánková takes pity on him and brings the groceries out to him. The man introduces himself as Matějíček, a tiler, now retired. He takes a liking to the obliging old lady and coaxes her to come and keep house for him — then changes his mind and arrives with a bouquet of roses to ask for her hand instead. To everyone’s delight, Granny accepts, and a wedding is soon celebrated. Running through her story, as ever, is Anna Holubová’s: her ex-husband Jiří, newly split from his mistress, wants to come back to her — which delights their daughter Michala above all — while Anna’s mother firmly advises her not to let Jirka back into the house. And then there is Anna’s sweetheart, Karel.

Karas, the store manager, gives his son Venda a car for passing his anatomy exam. Anna waits for Karel, but after Jirka’s return he’s nowhere to be found outside the shop. Karas learns that his son is involved with a colleague, Petra, who has a small daughter, Klára, born out of wedlock — and discovers that Venda failed his next exam because he couldn’t study, as little Klára cried all night. So he takes back the car keys, telling his son he’ll return them only once the exam is passed. Karel, realizing he can’t be without Anna, comes back to her. Moved by his return, Anna means to tell Jirka that their relationship is finally over — but he arrives with the children bearing gifts for her birthday the next day, and once again the couple’s parting is postponed indefinitely.

Olinka is preparing to marry a somewhat older, staid engineer, Jaromírek — which doesn’t stop her from bidding farewell to the love of her life, the slightly eccentric biker Fany. Olinka persuades Anna to come to the wedding, and since Michala is taking part in a writing contest just then, Anna goes with Jirka. When she looks for him to drive her home, she catches him out on the terrace kissing some young woman. Though she asks him nothing, Jirka puts on one of his usual little performances, trying to convince Anna he only did it to make her jealous — since she still keeps refusing him as a husband.

Anna is put in charge of four new apprentices — three girls and a boy, young Mireček. At home she says nothing of the fact that she knows about Jirka’s new affair. When Jirka is meant to collect little Péťa from a junior hockey tryout, he sends the boy home alone and goes to meet his mistress instead; Péťa gets lost and is brought home by a policeman. Jirka keeps lying — praising a dress rehearsal of Michala’s that never happened, and claiming he was called in to work — but Michala knows better and is shaken by his deceit. As the pre-Christmas rush descends and everyone works flat out, a clash with Vilímek over an order Anna gave forces the manager’s hand: either Anna goes, or he does. Anna, meanwhile, resolves to ask Jirka to move out at last. The shop faces its busiest season, Anna’s own future hangs in the balance — and so does the question of where her heart finally lies.