Eaten Out of House and Home

Martin Žemla manages to open his own merchant shop after years of hard work. He is often visited by the retired soldier Kyllian, who abuses the merchant's liquor showing nothing but an ever-increasing debt. A neighbor, widow Šustrová, maneuvers the kind and gentle Žemla into marriage to her daughter Pavlína, but on the wedding night she tells him that she doesn't like him and sends him to sleep in the room behind the shop.