A successful doctor is visited by her old friend, a famous writer. They used to be close, but their friendship ended when they both fell in love with the same man. At first, their reunion seems to be going well, but as they talk, their old grudges and resentments resurface and threaten to ruin their renewed connection.

Military doctor General Klenski is arrested in Stalin's Russia in 1953 during an anti-Semitic political campaign accused of being a participant in so-called "doctors' plot".

A fat middle-aged man in German officer's uniform gets off a train somewhere in Russia in winter. He is a doctor who has just been called up we learn eventually. This is the end of the line- the Germans are about to retreat. He goes to a hospital which is being evacuated and is thrown out. Kicked out he wanders with another conscript- a failed actor turned postman. The postman is deafened by a shell explosion. They meet their Russian equivalents, others as bad at killing as they are, while other Russians and Germans kill one another around them.

Basically, the action of the film takes place in a madhouse. But the absurdity has no boundaries, it has only a cause. And in this total madness the characters try to find the answers.

Day after day, routine, exhausting work, empty counters, worries, husband, mother-in-law, construction. It seems that there is another, better life somewhere.

A group of scientists is sent to the planet Arkanar to help the local civilization, which is in the Medieval phase of its own history, to find the right path to progress. Their task is a difficult one: they cannot interfere violently and in no case can they kill. The scientist Rumata tries to save the local intellectuals from their punishment and cannot avoid taking a position.