Ten-year-old Eda lives in Czechoslovakia. It is 1945, and he goes to school with some boys who are so mischievous that they have caused their previous teacher a nervous breakdown. She is replaced by a tough disciplinarian who administers frequent beatings. He also brags that he played an important role in the resistance to the Nazis. Despite this, the boys take to him, and he makes a success of his job on that front. He has a big problem, however, in that he can't keep from pursuing almost anyone in a skirt whose looks appeal to him. This gentle drama manages to get in some political points, including well-placed jibes about the development of a "model socialist state" in Czechoslovakia after the war, and it was nominated for an Oscar as "Best Foreign Film" at the 1992 Academy Awards