1933 Kharkiv, Soviet Ukraine. The House of Soviet Writers of Ukraine, 'The Word'. After a decade of flourishing activity by Ukrainian writers, everything changed... In the middle of the night, the NKVD car takes one of the writers away, then he is declared a public enemy. Now, two of his friends, famous Soviet writers, must choose how to protect themselves and their families from the terrible fate that hangs over the entire house.

This is a metaphorical story about the tragic and mysterious death of the most powerful poet of 1960s, human rights activist, hero of Ukraine Vasyl Stus and his struggle with the Soviet system. The events of the film unfold during the last attempt by the KGB to seduce the poet with a whimsical "freedom".