Vlácil's courageous debut willfully ignored the rules of narrative filmmaking and of the "committed cinema" popular at the time. This earned it legendary status among future members of the Czech New Wave, who saw a new way of filmmaking in its embrace of poetry and charm over storytelling and sermonizing. Few words are spoken in this tale of a white dove and its flight across Europe, from the edges of the Baltic Sea, where a young girl grieves its absence, to the inland spires of Prague, where a young boy and a painter discover it amid the grimness of their tenement building. What exists beyond words is Vlácil's imagery, rhythms, and compositions, brilliantly visualizing his characters' search for grace in a world that only offers it caged.