Alex is an 11-year old boy who, during WWII, hides in the Jewish ghetto from Nazis after all his relatives have been sent to the concentration camp. The movie portrays the ghetto through his eyes.
A boy comes of age under an oppressive, cruel socialist government and watches as it slowly but surely distorts his family, his school and even his own thoughts.
A small-time racketeer Stefek evades mob bosses by passing himself off as a mentally unstable cleptomaniac and laying low in an asylum. The racketeer and his closest devotee escape from the asylum and find work at the opera. Stefek becomes stage-doorman and soon discovers that the opera doubles as a brothel.
