The beautiful Tanya returns to her small mining town, after supposedly working as a model in Moscow. She decides to marry her shy school sweetheart Mishka, who now works in the mine. The miners finally receive some pay, but Mishka still ends up with no money to buy his bride a gift, so he seeks the help of his perpetually drunk buddy Garkusha. Mishka's poor working-class family all help to put on a fine wedding with copious amounts of vodka, even though they are suspicious of Tanya's occupation in Moscow, and of her connection with her Mafia ex-boyfriend Borodin.
In an ordinary industrial Soviet town, notable only for presence of a radio-telescope, people start behaving strangely, in a robotic manner, while assuming geometry-inspired aliases and organizing into a new hierarchy. The phenomenon spreads via a device of alien origin, called “the mediator”, capable of implanting extraterrestrial minds into human bodies. The aliens are bound by limitations of the terrestrial technology, having to use the means at the disposal of humans to prepare the grounds for the full-scale invasion. With “the mediator" being unable to subdue minds of children, lunatics, geniuses, and rebels, a struggle over the fate of the town and the human civilization ensues.
Ivan is old Russia: thick, dour, hard-working, often brutish; he misses Communism. He drives a taxi and one night meets Alexi, a new Russian, a musician, an alcoholic, irresponsible. Alexi stiffs Ivan for the fare, so Ivan tracks him down and a love-hate relationship ensues. When Alexi lets the bath water run over in Ivan's flat and Ivan must pay 500 rubles for repairs, he tries to force Alexi into day labor to repay him. It's hopeless. Then, suddenly, Alexi is discovered, goes on a jazz tour of America, becomes a celebrity, and returns in triumph. Ivan longs to renew the friendship, and it looks as if he may get what he wants.
