Larks on a String 1969 Prague in the early 1950s Bourgeois elements are being re educated by working in a scrapyard full of the detritus of industrial society The volunteer workers comprise a professor of literature, a public prosecutor, a dairyman, a saxophonist, a barber, and a young cook Also working in the yard are a number of female prisoners serving a year for trying to defect A camera crew arrives with potted plants and other props An idyllic scene is created the prisoners star briefly in a pro North Korean newsreel before going back to work The volunteers are striking because the scrapyard work quotas have risen without consultation A union rep arrives to persuade them otherwise The guard for the female prisoners gets married but the gypsy musicians make a mess at his reception The cook flirts with one of the pretty prisoners and finally proposes