Mr. Jolie is a high school English teacher with an uneventful career and an alcohol problem. He wants to escape the small mining town he lives in, but the only thing he can manage is an all-consuming fantasy of himself as the head of the English department at a fancy university, beloved by his colleagues and his students. The most detailed part of this fantasy is his ‘hidden room,’ where he throws gatherings for his faculty that are the highlight of the season. His first class on Monday morning is English I, where Paul Amaric’s polite correction on the course content provokes Jolie’s frustration – the boy is given extra homework along with the class writing assignment on the topic ‘A Trip Around My Room.’ After dismissing the class, he permits himself some alcohol; something he has never dared to do in school ever since the rumors of his drinking led to him being passed up for a promotion in favor of a younger female colleague. As a result of this and his general forgetfulness, he assigns his next class the same writing assignment. Paul’s brother is in this very class; on the following day, while Jolie corrects the assignments, he finds a great discrepancy in the brothers’ descriptions of the same room. The elder brother describes the small, cramped room as it really is, but Paul writes a description of a beautiful room that he someday dreams of having. This ‘lie’ throws Jolie into a rage, and he summons Paul to his office to shout at him. He orders Paul to admit that his dream room will never be his. Suddenly, Paul understands – there is a look of superiority in his eyes as he easily concedes just to pacify the angry old man. Jolie then goes home happily, believing himself to be on the university campus of his dreams and walking faster to reach his own beloved hidden room.