In the confined space of a mountain hut, where three people are locked up by insurmountable conditions, and around the house, where soldiers of the Russian Tsarist Army are surrounded, the characters make difficult decisions that forever change the course of events and the life of each of the participants in this story.

Fatima Mutsolgova undertakes an unprecedented journey into her homeland's unwritten past, charting Ingushetia's culturally rich landscape with its compelling mix of mythological tales, history and personal stories, arriving at her nation's darkest hour in February 1944, when the entire population became a phantom nation.