The fate of a Hungarian Jewish family throughout the 20th century.
The heroes of the film are manual workers, members of a Socialist Brigade. Gyula, the brigade leader once has a dream where the gate-keeper searches through Lenin, about to leave the factory. He decides to stage Gelman's play, Premium, with his brigade, since the drama very effectively depicts what they see in the world around.
At a dusty crossroads in the Soviet Union villagers surrender their possessions - a horse, a samovar, a goat - to the state. The train which takes them away brings to the village a physically and mentally handicapped woman, barely able to speak. She makes herself bracelets of burrs and studies herself in a cracked and cloudy mirror. Befriended by very few, teased and tormented by many she seeks protection at a huge portrait of Stalin.
