The thirties, the heyday of Soviet film production. The story of the famed couple's glory — a filmmaker and actress, behind the external well-being of which were hidden strange contradictory relationships and a sense of fear that they carried through their whole lives. The prologue to this story is the 85th anniversary of Lidiya Polyakova, the formerly brightest star in Soviet cinema, who played the main role in all the films of her own husband, director Konstantin Dalmatov. Now in the courtyard there are other times, Dalmatov’s movies are called ideological agitation, and the director himself and his wife are hiding from the world in the country, trying not to let anyone in.

Although he is only eighteen, twenty-year-old Nadia permits Sergei to move into her apartment and share her bed. However, his callowness swiftly bores her, and she is unable to hide her increasing disdain for him. Understandably, this is a matter of some distress for him. Her contempt is more difficult for him to bear than she suspects, and one day he is provoked to murder her.