Out of the blue, a failed actor turned drama teacher, Tristram Randolph, has greatness thrust upon him in the form of the top job as headmaster at a new school in the dysfunctional capital of a despotic post-Soviet state. Swineforth International, a franchise of a third-rate public school in England, is out in the desert, and there's no escape as the foreign faculty have had their passports confiscated. To make matters worse, Randolph and his motley crew of teachers, each of whom embodies one of the seven deadly sins, gradually fall victim to their own vices. Things come to a head when a revolution breaks out, the school is shut down, and Randolph is accused of aiding and abetting the rebellion. His only hope lies in winning a presidential pardon with the performance of a lifetime.