A bus arrives to the village, carrying a group of traveling actors who begin to perform passion plays from the Bible. Editor Alena (Kveta Fialová), lover of one of the actors, Baritone (Josef Bek), comes to see him. An electricity power failure interrupts the performance. Podgy, spiteful Joker (Jan Libícek) spurs his friends to start spreading news of some kind of imminent danger that no one can escape except inside the wagons that have suddenly turned up at the station. The train dispatcher's wife misses her husband. In the darkness of the night, villagers yield to panic fueled by the malicious Joker.