Nazi-occupied Crimea, 1944. A boy named Itzhak turns to Saide Arifova, a local Tatar Muslim woman, for help, explaining that he and a group of other Jewish orphans are hiding from the Nazis. Arifova faces a moral dilemma: should she try to help them or save herself by refusing? Despite the impending danger, she decides to protect the children by hiding them in plain sight, and disguising them as Tatars and adopting them into the local community.

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".