On the outskirts of 1983 Bratislava, in the waning years of Communist rule, soft-spoken widow and well-connected schoolteacher Comrade Mária Drazdechová arrives at her new class of unsuspecting students. With her little black leather notebook crammed with useful information about her pupils' parents' employment status, Mária, the unscrupulous instructor with the permanent smile, weaves an intricate network of corruption and uncommon personal favors--for her benefit, of course. Then an affronted father who can't afford to lose his job refuses to go along--and faces the consequences. But who would dare to denounce Mária, a woman with close ties to the ruling Communist Party?
—Nick Riganas