The owner of a circus decides to swap his trained bears for trained pigs, and fires clown Cibulka. The clown gets a job at a local school, bears escape and seek him out and a school inspector comes into town.
Mr. Kopfrkingl enjoys his job at a crematorium in Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s. He likes reading the Tibetan book of the dead and espouses the view that cremation relieves earthly suffering and sets out to save the world. There may be another idealogy that fits snugly with his existing worldview.