Aleksey Temnikov is a renowned ballet dancer and an acknowledged genius whose career was abruptly cut short after sustaining an injury in the 1990s. Twenty years later, Aleksey discovers that his condition is degenerative and that he will soon lose the ability to walk. Aleksey sets out to choreograph a ballet he envisaged long before but never staged for fear of failure. “What will I leave behind after I am gone?” is a question Aleksey feels he must contend with. However, returning to the world of ballet will not be easy for a man who has made so many enemies over the course of his life.

Konstantin, a songwriter and master guitarist, runs away from numerous problems to the nature reserve Mikhailovskoye. Kostya has long lost any way of income and has almost given up hope to be heard, living by sheer inertia and often drawing on alcohol. His wife and daughter are going to Canada, and in his head he constantly turns around the question: what exactly has gone wrong? How can he put it right? Does anyone need his creative work at all, or has he just talked himself into that? Maybe Konstantin has enough energy to change things, but he strongly doubts that: indeed, why and for whom should he try. Nevertheless, the nature reserve is the right place to collect his thoughts, break the minefield of his own life into sections, and get to work.