When in 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, their troops quickly besieged Leningrad. Foreign journalists are evacuated but one of them, Kate Davies, is presumed dead and misses the plane. Alone in the city she is helped by Nina Tsvetnova a young and idealist police officer and together they will fight for their own survival and the survival of the people in the besieged Leningrad.

The second World War echoes throughout the whole Khutsiyev's oeuvre. The director himself did not participate in the war: "The thing is, I didn't fight. I had been a sickly boy, so I was turned down because I still looked like a child. This is sort of like a debt I've been repaying ever since". In "People of 1941", Khutsiyev recites his favourite pieces by war poets and invokes documentary footage.

The war is over, but instead of happiness and joy Alexei Ivanov feels bitterness and fear. We have to go home, but do his children remember him, whom he left as kids?

Three demobilized "Afghans" arrive in one of the cities of Central Asia. And already at the airport, a fight begins between them and the local neo-fascist organization, rampaging through the city with impunity...

A famous singer is going through the dark period of her life...

On his son's birthday, Kolya gives an unexpected and strange gift, which becomes fateful in the child's life.

A veteran of the Great Patriotic War finds his front-line diary and relives the story that happened to him in the midst of the war. In the midst of fire, blood and dirt, he, then still a young Sashka, takes prisoner the same German boy. The enemy is preparing for death, but a young soldier gives him his word that Russian prisoners are not shot. Later, at the headquarters, saddened by the death of a combat friend, the battalion commander gives the order to shoot the prisoner. Sasha faces the most important choice in his life.

Returning to his native village, a demobilized paratrooper learns that his brother has become a victim of a drug mafia. He decides to avenge his death and goes to the city...

Italian gambler who is well-skilled in the card trade owes people in authority, and leaves his country to win the money. Arriving in a small Russian town, he tries to show off his tricks to the local card swindlers but is caught and ends up agreeing to a friendship and a cooperation. It is hard not to find oneself liking the gallant Italian.