This film is sad black comedy about complete life loser Jan Piszczyk, who despite his opportunist nature, always get into trouble and conflict with the government. He begins his story in prison where he was sentenced for being class enemy of the stalinist government in Poland. Through his life we can see the East European realities of '50s, from stalinist regime through melting of the Communist line after Stalin's death up to the late 50s. Naturally there are many funny gags but the general feeling is that this film is really sad, because Piszczyk, despite his best efforts, keeps getting into trouble, keeps getting into prison and is all the time exploited by others, while government is still the same. After all at the end of this movie we find out that life of Piszczyk is still a s**t hole and that his bad luck will keep on chasing him until he gets into another prison.