Set in 1937 Stalinist Georgia, the film traces the parallel destinies of a mother, condemned by the government as "an enemy of the people" and exiled to a work camp in Siberia, and her daughter, who meanwhile is sent to an orphanage. Arriving at the overcrowded work camp, the mother and other women who are not considered strong enough to be labourers, must journey still farther, crossing the icy Siberian landscape in search of food and shelter. At the same time, the daughter escapes the orphanage and returns to her former home, where she finds that a KGB officer has taken up residence. He protects her and an uneasy rapport between them develops—one of abhorrence and attraction, need and suspicion.

A cult of diners, restaurants and an excessive eating prevails in the City of Joy. Different contests are held in cooking the Georgian cuisine. Makro, a famous singer, decides to lend some spirituality to the city of gluttons. For that purpose she decides to set up a gallery of beautiful paintings in one of the city’s restaurants. The owners of the restaurant oppose that decision, but due to Makro’s agility the tenants of the city carry the paintings to the new museum.

A theater director with a normal middle-class life in Tbilisi becomes increasingly disturbed after witnessing a murder, obsessing about whether he could have done anything to prevent it.

In Georgia during WWII Zurikela, an orphan boy, meets Khatia, a blind girl, and vows to help her to see again.

Zura, a son of a rich businessman, steals a car of his father’s friend to amuse his classmates. When informed about it, the school principal discards him from the bike tournament. Nevertheless, Zura’s father manages to persuade her to allow his son to participate and even succeeds in bribing his championship. Zura’s classmates know that he became a champion undeservedly but can’t do anything about it. Only Khatuna, his alleged girlfriend, and Lexo, Zura’s friend, dare to protest against it. Their lack of loyalty enrages Zura and in the rush of the blood he crashes his father’s car. The accident takes Laxo’s life. Zura’s father does his best to save his son from deserved punishment but the first one against his decision is Zura himself.

This somber story of love lost forever is set against the backdrop of the changes that Communism brought to the state of Georgia in the former USSR after the 1917 Revolution. Eva and Archil are deeply in love and they pledge to be with each other always. After they marry, Archil dies suddenly and Eva is left alone and childless. Along comes the ruthless Spiridon who romances Eva and marries her - though his cold and cruel spirit break Eva's naturally buoyant self, until she sullenly eats alone, and avoids intimacy with her husband as much as possible. They adopt a daughter, who does not take sides between her glum mother and silent father. When the Communist cadres enter their village to promote the ideals of the October revolution, Eva starts to warm to her husband a little because he joins in that movement. Then her husband commits the fatal error of revealing a previous crime - an error that will later cause their grown daughter to question her parents' strange behavior.

路莎戈戈贝里兹是格鲁吉亚历史上首位女导演，但作品在苏联铁幕下被禁，更因史太林大清算，经历十年劳改，再没执起导筒。艺术基因遗传下去，她的女儿和外孙女后来都成了导演。女儿拉娜年逾九十，为已被世人遗忘的母亲作传，从自己童年说起，回顾父母那一代知识份子对理想的追寻与命途的坎坷，忆起自己创作常受母亲遭遇启发，不断寻找亡母作品拷贝终失而复得。是钩沉亦是思念，更是一阕女性颂歌，描划母亲面对苦难的坚定身影，相信黑夜尽头总有光。

A journalist realizes that while exploring and writing about the private lives of others, she has become distanced from her own family.