This is a story about the Ukrainian Cinderella. Since childhood, Vera Serduk dreams of becoming a famous artist. To fulfill her dream, the girl goes after graduating from school to the capital city, where her adventures begin...

In the remote Ukrainian village of Dykanka, handsome but poor Vakula loves the beautiful Oksana, but she's holding out for a wealthy prince, and her father doesn't think much of him either. On Christmas Eve she sends him on a ridiculous quest for dancing shoes that takes him all the way to the imperial palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with the help of some odd characters from the village and the Devil himself.

The king struggles to find a wife for his son, who is solely interested in science. An astrologer advises the king to host a grand royal ball. Cinderella, eager to attend, is forced by her stepmother and stepsisters to make dresses for them. Once the dresses are ready, they leave her behind with additional chores. However, her fairy godmother appears and helps her get to the ball, with one condition: she must return by midnight. At the ball, Cinderella meets the prince, who instantly falls in love with her. They dance and enjoy the evening until the clock strikes twelve, and Cinderella flees, leaving behind a glass slipper.

The rich peasant Solopii Cherevyk goes to the Sorochyntsi fair to sell wheat. His quarrelsome wife Khivria and daughters Paraska, Horpyna and Motria go with him. At the fair, Paraska meets a guy named Hrytsko and falls in love with him. But her stepmother Khivria is against their wedding. In parallel, the events related to the mysterious story about the "red scroll" develop.

Russian Empire, 1919. By a twist of fate, young idealist Osip Zadunaisky meets an infamous con artist and self-proclaimed Turkish subject Ibrahim Bender. A man of pure thought and aristocratic upbringing, Osip would never have associated with a cunning and unscrupulous swindler, but Bender comes up with an offer Osip cannot refuse. A precious royal relic, a diamond-encrusted golden scepter is hidden somewhere in town; Bender needs a partner on his mission to find it, and offers Osip a share of the profit from selling the treasure. And so begins their joint venture, wrought with comical and dangerous twists and turns, where they have to outsmart and outmaneuver officers of the White Guard as well as the local mafia, who also have their eyes on the scepter. As their quest unfolds, Osip is compelled to learn Bender’s tricks of the trade: charming flattery, delicate deception, soft intimidation... as well as brute force.