With his nose pressed against the glass, four-year-old Ionel watches the kids playing ball in the street with great interest. His father, a schoolteacher, has lost his job. Now he goes to various institutions in vain, because in bourgeois Romania it is not easy to find a job. Ionel waits for his father every night and while waiting for him he dreams of getting a real yellow ball for his birthday. His father realizes that it is necessary to get the money and buy the ball. After all, the boy is crippled, and the ball is the only hope for him to get well...