Young sculptor Martin makes a stylized sculpture for a newly built housing estate, but the commission rejects it; these elderly gentlemen lack the courage to say yes to such a modernist piece. Martin's friend, a young architect who seems to have arranged the artist the order, advises him to rework the sculpture. But Martin resents making a "monument for the moment" and refuses to change it. He is in serious financial problems that seem to be getting worse because his girlfriend, dancer Blanka, is pregnant. The young woman has sacrificed her career to her future child and Martin's stubbornness depresses her. Martin's next sculpture is very much like the first and the next commission, made up of younger people, again refuses it.
================================================================