A Ticket to the Heaven

Johanka (Milka Zimkova) had a fling with a well digger (Peter Vons) she had not met before and who, she was most likely certain, would never be around again. Just before his departure, they have sex and she eventually becomes single mother of a baby girl. 18 years later (her now 18-year-old daughter Paulina, Veronika Jenikova) commutes by bus to work in the nearby city, which gives the village gossips the occasional opportunity to remind her of her unknown father. A resultant conflict with her mother makes Paulina take up residence in the city. Johanka, prodded by her also-single friend Jozefka (Marie Logojdova) who maintains that a woman without a man is nothing, begins to woo the new teacher Jarek (Jiri Klepl) only to discover later that he is married. Paulina, in the meantime, loses her virginity to the soldier Jirka (Ivan Klecka) who promptly makes himself scarce. Johanka fails to consider that she actually has a better life than some of her married neighbors, begins to see abortion or marriage as Paulina's only options, and places personals on her behalf. Although Stefan (Lubomír Paulovic), one of the men who respond, turns out to be less than ideal, Paulina falls for him. As Stefan's car breaks down on the way to the elaborate wedding party and the cake adorned with a doll he is bringing begins to melt in the heat, Paulina, in her wedding dress and tipsy before the ceremony, suffers miscarriage, perhaps as a result of Johanka's earlier attempt to induce abortion that would look as if it occurred spontaneously. The car that carries Paulina to the hospital passes Stefan's car towed by a farm tractor, but none of the involved notice.