Mr. and Mrs. Horak long for a baby. While digging in the garden one day, Mrs Horak pulls up a tree-stump that looks very much like a small child, and after some minor work in the tool shed, she brings it to life with her longing and love. The baby, called Otik, is always hungry, and as his parents can't keep up with his appetite, first he eats the household's cat, and soon he develops a taste for human flesh. His father decides to lock him in the cellar and let him starve. But the neighbor's daughter, little Alzbetka, takes over the care of the abandoned Otik, stealing food from her family's fridge and sacrifices her savings to try to feed him. In despair, she offers him his own parents to eat, but in vain. The old myth has come alive, and approaches its inevitable macabre conclusion.