During the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the main characters of the story meet in a village pub. A traveling magician performs his variety show there with his assistant and current lover, with whom the local innkeeper had an affair in the past. The assistant would like to settle down, as she is tired of the traveling life. However, after an argument, the magician kicks her out. Hiding in the tavern's cellar is a young 16-year-old girl, half-Jewish, who is fascinated by the magician's performance. The innkeepers have been hiding her there somewhat against their will. When the girl runs away with the magician, they feel somewhat relieved. But only until they realize what would happen if the girl revealed where she was hiding.

It is 1961 and an Albanian student (Nik Xhelilaj) of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, together with a group of Czech students, is shooting his graduate movie on a motorcycle factory, in the small market-town of Český Šternberk, in then Czechoslovakia. Coming from a country that is completely isolated from the rest of Europe, he is fascinated by the lifestyle, society and "erotic exuberance" of the Czech golden youth, yet feeling strong links with his family in his homeland. He falls in love with a married woman (Anna Geislerová), the wife of a police superintendent (Paolo Buglioni) and is insecure about his future.