The story takes place in the town of Kostelec in 1942, during the Nazi occupation, shortly after Czech and Slovak resistance fighters assassinated Reinhard Heydrich, the Reichsprotector of Bohemia and Moravia, precipitating a vengeful Nazi crackdown. When the movie opens, the owner of the town bookstore is placing a comical maquette in his shop window, featuring photos of students who are soon to graduate from the local high school as well as a photo of their elderly Latin teacher, Professor Málek (played by František Smolík), as he points to the words "Higher Principle," the nickname that the students have given him on account of his frequent quotation of Seneca's moral precepts. A local Nazi official takes offense at the lightheartedness of the maquette, considering it out of keeping with official mourning for Heydrich, and orders it removed.