"A world without truth would be immensely sad," states the magistrate in the murder trial of local boy, Janek. A young man with serious mental issues, Janek's strange `chestnut crown' - woven from the leaves of a supposedly sacred tree - was found on the body of the farmer Geder; stabbed to death with a bread knife. Through a series of flashbacks during the interrogations, we learn of Janek's story: from the perversion of his relationship with his mother, to the frustrations of his love affair with Daria and his inability to complete his studies or free himself from the ghosts of this past.