Tonya is a bus-driver in a village on the outskirts of Nalchik, a modest city in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Together with her daughter, Tonya is eagerly awaiting the return of her only son, who is fighting for a Russian private military contractor in Syria. When Tonya is told that he has been killed in action, she refuses to believe it. She is sure that there was a mistake and her son is alive. She begins a grueling public battle with the contractor and the authorities, demanding the return of her son. When it becomes obvious that all efforts to silence Tonya are fruitless, a strange young man arrives on her doorstep...

After the divorce Mariyana returns to his native village. With her no one communicates, except for a new neighbor - a mysterious woman in a Muslim scarf.

The youngest son returns home to help his father and brothers meet the targets for a profitable order on cut wood. During his absence nothing has changed: the same back-breaking toil for the sake of a piece of bread, the same resistance from the neighbouring settlement, the same inability of the family members to express their love and understanding for their kin. And the river, which may rise at any time and wash away the parental home that stands on its banks.

Diploma work of the Kabardino-Balkar State University (Alexander Sokurov's workshop)