A young woman (Patsy Kensit) has just begun teaching 8-9 year olds below her qualification standards because of past problems. The school is English, based in Berlin for the children of foreign diplomats etc. Already having the usual difficulties with teaching spoiled children, on her second day her classroom gets held hostage by a frustrated intellectual killer. Jurgen Prochnow plays the German detective heading the case. The film focuses mainly on the 24 hours spent inside the classroom, with Marcia trying to keep the children calm without losing her own sanity.