Fate promised her a brilliant beginning and a tragic end. The finest hour of Isolda Izvitskaya (1932–1971) was the masterpiece of Russian cinema - Grigory Chukhrai’s film “The Forty-First”, where she starred in tandem with the then most popular Oleg Strizhenov. Few people before filming saw in the graceful, beautiful graduate of VGIK the wild and sharp Maryutka from the story by Boris Lavrenev. But the success exceeded all expectations. The love story of a passionate revolutionary and a White Guard officer is still impossible to watch without excitement. And in 1956, when the film was released and shown at the Cannes Film Festival, receiving a special prize there, the actress came into the spotlight. Later she would play many more roles - in the films “To the Black Sea”, “Fathers and Sons”, “Unique Spring”, “Calling Fire on Ourselves”, “On Thin Ice” and others. But none of them will bring Izvitskaya its former glory. And in her personal life - her husband was film artist Eduard Bredun - she will not be happy. Shortly before her death, Isolda Vasilievna did not appear on the street for weeks, not having gotten rid of the addiction to alcohol that her husband had taught her. When the door was broken down, she was found dead in the kitchen, where she had lain for days...The book by film critic Natalia Tendora is about a beautiful actress and a woman admired by millions, about the family curse hanging over her fate.