After graduating from the St. Petersburg Pediatric Academy, Sofya Nikolaevna Valko went to work at the Dobyvalovo psychiatric hospital, lost in the Novgorod forests. Among the patients in the second ward whom she treats, two patients with sluggish schizophrenia have remained since Soviet times. This diagnosis was usually given to dissidents. The psyche of these patients - a poet and an artist - was shaken by the previous “treatment” and the ban on creativity. Sophia began to restore their psyche with Gestalt therapy, which she became interested in since her student years, and creativity - art therapy, for which she brought them paints, paper, fiberboard . On the instructions of the academician, they are trying to eliminate this “patient” because he knows too much. Sofya Valko helps the artist escape. They fell in love, but life circumstances separate them - the artist is forced to fly to America. After several years of separation, they meet again, find themselves in criminal and dramatic situations, and the artist learns from Sophia something he never suspected.