A disenchanted landowner (Kulagin) tires of his adulterous wife (Tyskiewicz) and falls deeply in love with his neighbor's daughter (Kupchenko). Based on Turgenev's A Nest of Gentlefolk, the film marked the first in a series of literary adaptations by Konchalovsky after his more politically-minded work had been attacked by Russian censors. Though still a student in acting school, Konchalovsky's brother Nikita Mikhalkov also appears in the film.
A Moscow film crew plans to shoot a silent drama in Odessa during the height of the Civil War. The cameraman (Nakhapetov) who has deep affection for the film's star (Solovey) secretly shoots the atrocities carried out by the White Guard for a documentary he is making, a film he hopes will change the star's view of the government. The screenplay for this powerful, reflexive drama was co-written by Mikhalkov's brother, Andrei Konchalovsky.