Jozef Mak was an ordinary man: a child born out of wedlock and a shy outcast rejected by everyone. Passive but desperate for affection and acceptance. Made resilient by his suffering, he always found the strength to persevere, even when fate brought him to his knees.The Slovak author Jozef C. Hronsky managed to introduce new original elements into his novel Jozef Mak written in 1933. He deliberately put aside the usual schematic theme line of a social novel and instead focused on the psychological insight into the soul of a neglected child. The film concentrates on the inner world of the characters and their tense relations showing the grinding poverty and miserable life in a village in Slovakia in the past.