Russian provincial town in the middle of the 1930s Stalin's Great Purge. Ivan Lapshin, the head of the local police, does what he has to do. And he does it well.

Following the Russian Civil War, a loyal Red, Shilov, must prove he is at home among strangers as he attempts to recapture a shipment of gold that he was supposed to deliver to Moscow. Needed as a means of buying food for the people, the gold Shilov was entrusted with is stolen, initially by a group of assassins and then by a group of bandits. In tracking the gold’s whereabouts, Shilov’s motives are questioned and he is suspected of treason, in part because his brother was a devoted White. In an effort to clear his name, Shilov locates the gold, but he also discovers rampant greed and corruption.

It follows political events in Russia at the beginning of the century, during the birth of the Social Democratic Party, among the first fighters of which was Vera Protasova, the daughter of a lawyer who defended Narodnaya Volya members in court.

An old witch Baba Yaga tricks Leshy - a shy forest spirit - to turn into all sort of monsters in order to lure little Ivanushka into forest and frighten him. Because "fear means respect".

Big changes are coming to the life of twelve year old Masha after vacations on Kamchatka island. Her father spends most of his time sailing and lives in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, while the girl lives with her mother in Odessa. Masha had long dreamed of traveling to Kamchatka; now, the long-awaited day has arrived. Summer will pass in a flash for both father and daughter: Masha will spend two months with her father on Bering Island, befriend an Aleut boy named Radik, and convince her mother not to return to Odessa at all.