Vera Shevardina believed that life was not a success. Her mother, an unrecognized actress, bullies her, her husband abandoned her with a child in her arms, she has no luck with work. And only Vera’s attempt to understand her own ancestry gives hope that everything will change - a branch of the famous Italian surname Orbini is discovered on the family tree. Vera learns that her great-grandmother knew Maxim Gorky, and the family secret is connected with the Italian period of the writer’s life. And Vera decides to go to Italy to meet her supposed relatives, not suspecting that too many people are interested in the Italian life of the famous proletarian writer, and Vera Shevardina is very disturbing to some of them...