The dramatic chronicle of the Meshchersky family is a story about the post-revolutionary life of three representatives of the Russian intelligent family, the history of which reflected the fate of the whole generation. Life on the estate, holidays, youthful hobbies - and after the hell of a civil war, the bitterness of emigration. They held on and knew how to hide their confusion. But the pain destroyed the soul, manifesting itself in short novels that did not bring happiness and unfulfilled hopes ...

Pavel and Pavelina leave their rural countryside homes and move to Moscow to find work. Once there, they find that urban life is not what they thought it was and have to endure bitter hardships as they try to find work and places to live. The two meet for the first time during a fight at a bar, when they are arrested by police along with others in the building. The understand each other's troubles and band together to avoid both the police and criminal gangs that plagued Moscow toward the end of the Soviet Union.

2001 film by Yuri Kara