It's late WWII in the Nazi occupied Czech lands. From a long line of men who value idleness, those men including his ex-train engineer father who retired at age forty-eight, young Milos Hrma is proud that his first job is as apprentice train dispatcher at Kostomlatky Station, the job which townsfolk can view with envy in being important - he looking good in the process in needing to wear a uniform - but he actually having little to do besides carrying his disc around on the platform when the infrequent trains come in and out of the station. The other regular employees are the pretentious yet ineffective stationmaster who is more concerned with his pigeon-keeping and complaining about others' morals without doing anything about it, and Hubicka, the head dispatcher. Milos admires Hubicka not only in he also being able to do his job without placing much effort into "work", but what seems to be his natural way with women as Milos, still a virgin, does not have that as part of his being. Regardless, Milos' friend, Masa, who works as a conductor as well as sides as an assistant in her uncle's photography business, makes it clear that she wants to get to know him in the sexual sense. Milos sees sexual ability as a sign of manhood, and he really wants to be a man. In the process, Milos may discover that there are other ways to display what he considers manliness as town councilor Zednicek, a Nazi collaborator, informs those working at the station of the importance of their work as trains crucial to the Nazi cause come and go throughout the country.