In one of the occupied European cities, the commandant of the garrison gathers a troupe of circus performers. Coming from different countries, they are in the humiliating position of people forced to serve their enslavers. Many of them, recruited from camps and workhouses, were quite content with their lot. Only after a chain of subsequent events, the artists raise an uprising. Unarmed people are not able to resist the arrived guards. They die, but at the cost of their lives they regain their lost human dignity.
At one court hearing, a witness, who is engaged in prostitution, refused to take the oath, cause she didn't consider herself as a Christian. That incident caused great excitement in the hall.
A television film based on the play of the same name by Alexander Borin about the problems of heat supply in one of the small towns.
