This is a story about one day in the life of a court executive officer (collector) from the Polish provincial town of Wałbrzych. Lucek is a young ambitious thirty-something. He has already made it, in a sense, by having fled the poverty of his home mining district. It’s not good enough, though. A go-getter, bright and witty, he charms every interlocutor at first contact. However, this is only posturing, which hides his cunning and ruthless nature. He is successful in his work, as he has been around and is no stranger to poverty and humiliation, which he has no qualms about laying bare in others.



Self-confident, treating others as stepping stones to his career, no matter the price, he somehow brings about his own undoing. Namely, a showdown with more powerful and resourceful opponents ends up in disgrace. Lucek seems to be hitting the rock bottom. Yet he ventures on a desperate attempt, the ultimate con to save his skin by offering a massive bribe to those he has bled white by his extortion tactics. They however, rapacious but terrified, won’t come to his rescue. This disappointment is both a shock and an internal sea change to Lucek, an invigorating, positive discovery that seems to imbue him with a new confidence and energy.