In this drama movie, a clerk at an insane asylum obsessively writes a diary documenting his experiences and the madness he witnesses. Based on a true story, the movie explores themes of insanity and obsession within the confined walls of the institution.

The film takes place between two revolutions - 1905 and 1917. There is no agreement in the family of the Kolomiytsev brothers, bankrupt nobles. The elder brother Yakov is mortally ill. The youngest, Ivan, a gendarme colonel, is completely confused and does not know how to get out of the situation created in the family.