Srubov is a part of CHEKA, the secret police Lenin established after the Bolshevik Revolution. They arrest, interview for a minute, try in ten seconds, and execute intellectuals, aristocrats, Jews, clergy, and their families. In the building basement, five people at a time are shot as they stand naked facing wooden doors. No one to remember their last words; no martyrs, just anonymous bodies. Daily, the kangaroo court, the executions, the loading of bodies onto wagons. Srubov is cold, distant, sexually dysfunctional, and a deep thinker, hated by former friends and his family. As he tries to reason the nature of revolution and the purpose of CHEKA, he slowly goes mad.

In 1948, a young director, Viktor Kostrov, is arrested after being denounced by his lover’s father. Beria’s inquisition, the horrors of camp life, and the vengeance of criminals form the grim backdrop for the story’s characters: a sadistic warden, a camp boss, Viktor’s terrified fiancée, and her father, an NKVD officer. Based on the autobiographical story by Gennady Beglov.

Rita loves her husband Alexei, but he decides to leave her for another woman named Alena. When nothing works, Rita seeks help from a sorcerer and ends up waking in Alena's body.

During an attempted arrest, a Russian intelligence officer working abroad is killed. The loss of such a valuable agent is the result of a leak of classified information from within Russia. The counterintelligence investigation yields troubling results: a mole has infiltrated the Main Intelligence Directorate, passing top-secret information abroad while operating under the cover of Western intelligence services.

Rita, a figure skating coach, wants to prevent her school bankruptcy and closing by trying to push the famous millionaire to fall in love with her.