June 1946: Stalin invites Russian emigres to return to the motherland. It's a trap: when a ship-load from France arrives in Odessa, only a physician and his family are spared execution or prison. He and his French wife (her passport ripped up) are sent to Kiev. She wants to return to France immediately; he knows that they are captives and must watch every step.

In hopes that they can help each other, a psychiatrist arranges for a suicidal young man and a terminally ill woman to meet.

Nikola is a middle-aged man struggling to make sense of his life in his native Bulgaria and to say goodbye to his loved ones before leaving for Germany in search of a better life. This is a story about the last days of the past and the hope of a new beginning.