Six-year-old Stefek challenges fate. He believes that setting a chain of events in motion will help him get closer to his father who left his mother. His sister helps him bribe fate with small sacrifices, but things go wrong and then Stefek tries a very risky trick.

The story of a spirited ten-year-old girl who has run away from her proudly affluent parents in town and finds grudging refuge with the slightly slovenly caretaker of an abandoned farm, an ex-teacher.