Somewhere near the border, deep in the Czech countryside. A rundown bar is the meeting-place for a few guys, who have seen better days themselves. They meet to watch the World Ice Hockey Championship – Czechoslovakia’s national sport – on an old black-and-white television-set. Karel, the owner of the long-bankrupt bar, still believes in his business and the love of his wife Zdena – but she already has her eye on the elegant and vain bus-driver Milan. Neurotic Pavel from Prague can, when drunk, tell the winner of the next match. Josef is a descendant of the Gypsies – at least, that’s what the others, who make jokes about him, believe. These men put all their hope in the Czech team – and anybody who applauds a good move by the Canadians is not a real Czech, at least in their eyes.