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A Czech family tries to deal with their own crises as their country struggles through political turmoil between 1968 and 1989 in this gentle, bittersweet comedy. Olga (Ivana Chylkova) is the teenage daughter of a poet from the Ukraine who is trying to find a place for her in the State University. However, a petition that circulated at one time suggests she would not be a fit student, so the writer prepares a petition of his own urging the school to admit her. After several years, the document bears 150 signatures, mostly from friends and family from the Ukraine who make annual shopping trips in their Czech village. Meanwhile, Olga and her friends find themselves growing up against the backdrop of Czechoslovakia's "Normalization" campaign. Milan Steindler won the Best Director award at the 1995 Moscow International Film Festival for his work on this film, which was based on a novel by Halina Pawlowska.