The fate of a person is full of surprises, and its turns sometimes depend on insignificant accidents. An American of Russian origin and aspiring writer Nikolai Torganov would have remained an unknown author if one day a certain plane passenger had not opened a forgotten book and immersed himself in reading... Now Torganov has everything - an Oscar award for the best a script, an affair with a great Hollywood actress, working with Steven Spielberg... Only one thing worries him - a strange feeling that he has lost something in his distant Russian past. But what exactly? Torganov goes to Russia, where he learns that a classmate he once liked has been sentenced to life imprisonment. She is in prison, from which she will never be able to leave...