Iva, a 43-year-old seamstress, lives in a far-flung Bulgarian town and works in a local factory run by an Italian investor who pays his workers a pittance to produce fancy clothing for big brands. Iva works under gruelling conditions — long hours, poor pay, and relentless exploitation. Denied sick leave despite her persistent fever, she has no choice but to carry on. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hits, and Iva is hospitalised and given a diagnosis which makes her the first official case, so-called "patient zero", of her small town. What follows is a harrowing descent into communal scapegoating and marginalisation. Following the big success of his previous film, Blaga’s Lessons, Stephan Komandarev now focuses on the story of another female character who, in contrast to Blaga’s stoicism, is made frail by circumstances and societal failures. Inspired by true events, the story unfolds as a bitter social drama and a searing critique of systemic exploitation in a globalised world.