According to the story of the same name by Vladimir Makanin. Mitya Rodiontsev, a young employee of the research institute, for some time now became one of those who were in the close circle of the secretary of the director Aglaya Andreyevna and felt well protected from the vicissitudes of fate. Having become a “retinue”, Mitya was no longer engaged in science, but was busy for those who needed him, openly respected him and saw him as a future leader. But once Rodiontsev was not invited to the director’s office for a weekly tea party...

After leaving prison, 40 years old Lyashenko robbed a man at the station and, along with the money, stole a passport. Realizing that he had robbed his childhood friend, Lyashenko decided to return the stolen goods. A night conversation between the tramp Leonid Lyashenko and the successful official.

Humphrey Van-Weyden, a young literary man, decides to visit a friend. On the ferry "Martinez" he sails from San Francisco to the other side of the bay. In the fog, the ferry collides with a large vessel and sinks in minutes. Finding himself in the water, Humphrey quickly became exhausted. Salvation came unexpectedly. A passing schooner happened to spot a man in the water. So Humphrey found himself on board the fishing schooner "Ghost", commanded by the captain "Wolf" Larsen...

2007 film by Valery Todorovsky

Two Moscow students are mostly concerned with scoring with women but their lives change radically when one of them falls for a Jewish girl whose family is being persecuted by anonymous anti-Semites and is preparing to emigrate to Israel.