Their first night is a chain of random coincidences. However, some time later, she shows up at his office under a different name and a suspiciously clean biography. And this seems to be no coincidence.
The task force under the command of Major Oleg Sorokin is facing a dangerous and many-sided enemy. Criminal authorities from Rostov-on-Don seek to expand their circle of influence to St. Petersburg and take control of a large pharmaceutical plant. However, in the course of the investigation, a no less formidable, but much more insidious “third force”, interested in the seizure of the plant, suddenly appears.
The action takes place in Leningrad n the time of "perestroika" during the 1980's. Tatyana is a beautiful Russian nurse who is underpaid at her hospital job, so she becomes a prostitute catering to international tourists. She becomes well paid in dollars, and helps her ailing mother survive. Tatyana's international clients tell her about the life in other countries, so she accepts a marriage in order to escape from the grim Soviet reality. Even though she is married to a decent man abroad, she still suffers being labeled an ex-Soviet prostitute, and her new life is full of new troubles.
A young doctor Nikolai Alexandrovich Zaostrovtsev, a fourth generation medical professional, found himself in the Gladuny village directly after the Institute. Neither he himself, nor his father, a town surgeon, expected that he would linger long their. But having become a real doctor in this working village community, he remains true to his profession without any dreams of glory or city life…
This film was Sokurov's first feature at Lenfilm, roughly based on a short story by the contemporary Soviet writer Grigory Baklanov about the transitional period from power to subordinance.
