Franz, a copyist at the Viennese Museum of Art History, finds himself struggling increasingly with the degradation and the encroaching influence of capitalism on his environment. He lives apart from his wife and daughter. His work and his involvement with the famous paintings in the Museum exert a huge influence on him: he develops a growing sensitivity to the conflicts going on under the surface of everyday life. Then, when Franz is denied access to his daughter, the pressure mounts. Even his encounter with Mathilde, a supermarket employee whom he meets at the Museum, is not able to stem his growing unease and anger. Franz increasingly experiences the seemingly banal changes in his surroundings as a personal threat and destruction of his personal world: a parked bus with its motor running, the closure of the familiar delicatessen in his district, the increasing amount of space taken up by advertising hoardings across his street. Franz reacts, leading to an escalation of conflict. In the end he is hunted down as a criminal by the authorities…