Based on the novel by Booker Prize Winner Ludmila Ulitskaya, The Funeral Party is set in August 1991. In a sweltering New York City apartment, a group of Russian émigrés gathers round the deathbed of an artist named Alik, a charismatic character beloved by them all, especially the women who take turns nursing him as he fades from this world. Their reminiscences of the dying man and of their lives in Russia are punctuated by debates and squabbles: Whom did Alik love most? Should he be baptized before he dies, as his alcoholic wife, Nina, desperately wishes, or be reconciled to the faith of his birth by a rabbi who happens to be on hand? And what will be the meaning for them of the Yeltsin putsch, which is happening across the world in their long-lost Moscow but also right before their eyes on CNN?

Based on the novel by Booker Prize Winner Ludmila Ulitskaya, The Funeral Party is set in August 1991. In a sweltering New York City apartment, a group of Russian émigrés gathers round the deathbed of an artist named Alik, a charismatic character beloved by them all, especially the women who take turns nursing him as he fades from this world. Their reminiscences of the dying man and of their lives in Russia are punctuated by debates and squabbles: Whom did Alik love most? Should he be baptized before he dies, as his alcoholic wife, Nina, desperately wishes, or be reconciled to the faith of his birth by a rabbi who happens to be on hand? And what will be the meaning for them of the Yeltsin putsch, which is happening across the world in their long-lost Moscow but also right before their eyes on CNN?

When you love, your life changes beyond recognition. When you are loved, you may not even suspect it. But if your life turns into a continuous nightmare, if every minute you are waiting for news of the death of another loved one - such love cannot be overlooked. It is only necessary to calculate the lover. And as soon as possible.

Lidia Sheveleva, a correspondent for the newspaper "Time, Forward!", becomes a pawn in a big game, having received from an anonymous source compromising materials on Yegor Shubin, head of the legal service of a large holding company. On the assignment of her superiors, she writes a denunciatory article about a despicable thief with "the appearance of an English lord". Justice triumphs - the management of the holding company suspends Shubin from business and gives him a week to try to restore his good name ... But fate likes to joke, and it accidentally collides Sheveleva and Shubin again. At the close acquaintance with Yegor Lydia begins to doubt his guilt, and recent enemies begin their own investigation, despite the dangers and risking their lives.

It's not good to turn your back on old friends.

Two young, simple-minded twin sisters sewing-motorists from a vocational school, who after the death of their mother live separately from their alcoholic father, are charmed by a modernist painter who is indulgent to them and even introduces them into the circle of his "chosen ones". Serge uses the sisters as models and introduces them to his photographer friends.

Maria is a single mother of two children. When Maria dies unexpectedly, the children are looked after by Anna, who lives next door. Meanwhile, Nikolai, who wanted to marry Maria, decides to stay with Anna to help raise Maria's kids.