An ambitious small town Polish communist official prepares to receive a delegation from Warsaw. At stake is a large fertilizer factory contract that would mean hundreds of jobs for a dirt poor rural province. But winning the contract creates more problems than it solves as politicians, environmentalists, and displaced citizens alike inadvertently plumb the gap between socialism and the anarchy of human nature. The builder turned reluctant factory director's "quiet conscience" becomes the moral center of a sprawling, Altmanesque tapestry of greed, conspiracy and grudge holding.