"Makarov" both a popular Russian name, and also slang for the word "gun," serves as a metaphor for the brutal reality of life in a post-totalitarian society. The story's protagonist, Makarov, embodies this struggle as he becomes more mechanical and less spiritual upon acquiring a gun.

The young soldier Vasily Lemekhov has returned from the hospital and met a young woman Natasha in Chisinau.

On the same day, Andrei's wife Nina asks for a divorce, his colleague Natasha tells him she's attracted to him, he's assigned a new project under the direction of Philip (a well-dressed, authoritative, and even arrogant stranger who keeps touching him), and he fights a gang of homophobes to protect a young gay man, Oleg. The next day, Philip takes Andrei away from the office on an odyssey into a space that is charged with spirituality and homoeroticism. Philip is no businessman, and the disclosure of who he really is forces Andrei into a series of choices that involve Natasha, Nina, belief, and love.

In Venice, the famous film actress Anna Zakharova meets the artist Mario. The meeting makes a lasting impression on the young man - he is in love. On her return to Russia, Anna is met with failure: she is removed from the role, breaks up with her lover-colleague. Desperate, the actress gives up everything and goes to Mario dying of passion, but during the sea voyage falls in love with the captain of the ship. Learning about it, Mario fails to control the car, gets into an accident and goes blind. All that is left for Anna, who feels guilty, is to go with him to the wedding...

The journalist becomes a victim of rape. To take revenge on the rapists, she makes a deal with the criminals. But things are beginning to unfold unpredictably...

A young Russian gymnast is forced to return to the life of an ordinary teenage girl after an injury prevents her from competing.

Journalist Tamara Malysheva is deeply unhappy in her personal life with her alcoholic husband, Andrey. The editorial office sends Tamara to a small Ukrainian village to investigate the reasons why a soldier who had just come out of the army stabbed his mother-in-law with an axe and the 11 years of strict prison sentence he received for it. There she meets Yuriy, a man who has been "waiting for her all her life" and with whom she falls in love without looking back. Further events develop.

Fate brings the heroine together with different men, but her novels are unhappy: one lover returns to his homeland in Egypt, the other dies in a car accident. There is still hope for a third. Maybe we'll get lucky with him?..