Plot

The life of successful Czech healer Jan Mikolasek, who diagnosed and healed people using his intuition and strong familiarity with plants, set against the background of the events of the totalitarian fifties.

Herbalist Jan Mikolase dedicated his life to caring for the sick despite the immense obstacles he faced in his private and public life. Born at the turn of the 20th century, Mikolasek wins fame and fortune using unorthodox plant-based treatment methods to cure a wide range of diseases. Already a local institution in Czechoslovakia before World War II, the healer gains in reputation and wealth both during the Nazi occupation and under Communist rule. One after the other, each regime wants to use his skills and in return give him protection. But how high shall the costs be to maintain this status as the tide turns.

The Czech Republic in the 1950s. Long queues form every day outside the villa of the famous faith healer Jan Mikolásek (Ivan Trojan) in Jenstejn. People who want to be treated by him have to bring a clear bottle of their urine. Mrs Mühlbacherová (Jaroslava Pokorná), a healer from his home village, had taught young Jan (Josef Trojan) how to judge urine by its color and turbidity and what herbal treatment can be derived from it. With the help of a lamp, the healer examines each vial, dictates the diagnoses and a special treatment plan for each patient to his assistant Frantisek Palko (Juraj Loj). He even gives some of them money for a holiday by the sea or in the mountains. Even now, when a new political wind is blowing in the country, he has no intention of retiring. But the newspapers, which are subject to communist censorship, vilify him as a charlatan. One night, Mikolásek and Palko are arrested. He is accused of poisoning Comrade Strohal, a long-serving member of the Communist Party. In truth, those in power are suspicious of his extravagant lifestyle and his homosexual relationship with his assistant. When it turns out that there never was a patient Strohal, the defendants gain hope.—ARD