Anastasia Dmitrievna Vyaltseva, who performed on the opera stage, was called "incomparable" during her lifetime. Obsessed with the desire to sing, the young provincial woman arrived in St. Petersburg, joined the troupe of the musical theater of the entrepreneur Arkady Palma, married the patron of the arts Nikolai Kholev, and soon gave her first concerts. The first success, the first triumphant tour of Russia and the first losses. Her husband dies, the Russo-Japanese war begins, she goes to the front and will do everything that is the responsibility of a sister of mercy.

Several days from the life of a landowner's estate on the eve of Christmas are shown through the perception of a boy. The action takes place in Russia in the second half of the 19th century.