The investigation of the melon affair, to remain undisclosed for thirty years, is led by Major Piroska Szabó, the secret girlfriend of Mr. Kálmán, the boss, with a charge against the policemen Lajos Endúros and Richard Wagner. Sitting on the terrace of their favourite snack bar, the two policemen, along with Sergeant-Major Badár, take an oath not to testify against each other, and to mislead the authorities by giving false evidence.
1958. In the cell of the condemned, seven men await the signs of an approaching execution. All of them recall their pasts and envision their wish-dreams.
A mythical “hen” rises from the factory canteen’s lake to gobble the golden egg that Marinka, the lunchroom maid, discovered in the ketchup—an egg that was supposed to launch an American-Hungarian joint venture but went missing amid corporate scheming and a police probe into a mysterious “spillage.”
