The entire family of a 6-year-old Anna dies in the mass coordinated execution of Jews. The mother covers up Anna with her own body, and the girl miraculously survives. For the next few hundred days Anna hides in the disused chimney at the Nazi Commandant's office. From her shelter she watches as life passes her by until the village is liberated from the Nazi. In these inhuman conditions Anna not only survives but keeps her humanity. Many factors help her: memories from the life swept away by war, the cultural foundations laid by the parents and a friend who saves her from loneliness.

Sasha, a singer at a musical theatre, persuades his friend Kulik to take him to a remote sacred place for fishing. Soon they find out that wood spirits live here. Kulik warns Sasha to ask them of nothing and not to fool the evil spirit, but he breaks the taboo — and now the spirits demand blood payment. Kulik faces a difficult choice: to leave Sasha in the forest and escape, or pull him out and pay with his life.