The rich widow Madame Collie leaves the fortune to her lost niece Maria Ivanova. Two cousins of Maria go from Paris to Moscow in order to search her. They have to find a 17 year old girl with the birthmark on her right shoulder. The documents of the heiress are hidden in her doll.

Three reporters and an office girl are trying to stop a bacteriological strike by some powerful western business leaders against the USSR.

"Polikushka" was the only film directed by Aleksandr Sanin, one of Moscow Art Academic Theatre's founders, and is based on Lev Tolstoy's homonym short story. In spite the many differences between the literary oeuvre and its film adaptation it is a remarkable work that is outstanding for its depiction of the cruel realities of Russian society -the harsh life condition of its main character and his family in contrast to the wealth of his mistress;