Katya and her 6-year-old son Sanya, who, in 1952, meet a veteran Soviet officer named Tolyan. Katya falls in love with Tolyan, who turns out to be a small time criminal, but who also becomes a father figure to Sanya ...
Fluke Kelso, a dissipated, middle-aged former Oxford historian, who is in Moscow to attend a conference on the newly opened Soviet archives, receives in his hotel a very unexpected visitor.
In a large house in the middle of the steppes, the Shamanovs meet for a family gathering. When suddenly the eldest brother Victor appears after a 25 year absence, unspoken family conflicts come to light. Nobody suspects that Victor is escaping his dark past and that killers are looking for his hiding place.
