The film is a praise of human willingness to take on the endless challenges of fate. The loaf of bread a prisoner receives each day is used to patch thousands of holes in the cell walls. They are inhabited by nerve-wracking busy insects that flit constantly from hole to hole. When the work is finished, the prisoner is unexpectedly transferred to another cell. The new loaf of bread held in his hands freezes dramatically halfway to his mouth: the walls of this cell are also strewn with thousands of holes.