Sabina, a quiet, introvert and not particularly popular girl, who stays in school after hours to play Chopin, is being put down by the new German teacher Robert, after which she goes home and commits suicide for reasons unspecified. The class is in shock. Suddenly everyone was fond of Sabina and they all look for a scapegoat to put the guilt on. The evident choice is Robert, a gruff, strict and demanding professor but devoid of any educational skills, who expects his students to speak to him only in German and uses Thomas Mann, his life and his writings as a constant reference in his class. Giving his students low grades and putting them down on every occasion he has, he is soon "the Nazi" whose conduct drove Sabina to despair and this is a good enough reason to walk out of his lessons, organize protests when he does not attend the funeral, and throw the smoothly functioning institution into turmoil.