Nikolai Chukrov - the main character in this impressive and original account of the oppression and inhumane actions of a dictatorship - is a man without a past or a future. He was born in a gulag and still lives in an area where former concentration camps were located under Stalin's regime and which the Russian government would prefer to keep quiet about even after the fall of communism. Director Alexander Gutman links this personal story with the preparation of a concert by Sergei Prokofiev, who died in neglect on the same day as Stalin. The final strand of the story consists of unique weekly newsreels showing the construction of penal camps.