Moscow, 1934. At the end of his life, anticipating his imminent departure, at the request of his loved ones, Lev Vygotsky agrees to several psychoanalytic sessions with the grand lady of world psychology, a student of Freud and Jung, Sabine Spielrein. Adhering to largely opposite views, two great scientists are trying to answer each other the main question of their time — is there a method to educate a "new person"?

The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov is interwoven with the Great Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon's invading army.