In a single continuous take, the film explores the history of Russia through a mysterious unnamed protagonist who wanders through the Winter Palace of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.

When you are eleven years old, it seems that anything can happen to you. Especially when your grandmother comes to visit you, who knows how to do magic. You can even learn magic yourself, and then your life will become like a dream: sometimes scary, sometimes intoxicating, then completely unlike anything else. But in order to find a talent in yourself, or save a friend, or just make sure that at least someone really loves you, then you have to try yourself. And no magic will help here.

Olga, is a young intelligent woman who raises a young son. She ends up falling in love with a married man who does not dare to leave his family.

The action in this lavishly produced film takes place at an oddly ark-shaped mansion during World War I, and in spirit (although not in story) it reflects the play which inspired it, the ferociously antiwar Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw. A large group of family and friends have gathered at this country house to dance, drink, and converse. Their conversation, in particular, is adorned with erudite literary references and quotations. Despite their apparent refinement, their preoccupations are simple: sex and violence. Disquieting images break the tranquility of the vacationers' inappropriate idyll: some of these include documentary footage of starving African children, images (both real and re-enacted) of George Bernard Shaw going about his daily life, and a corpse coming to life on an autopsy table, only to cheapen that miracle by scolding a group of women. The music used in the film ironically points to its disturbing message and is uniformly anachronistic.

A rich woman accidently comes across a conversation on the phone about people talking about a murder.