A look at the story through the prism of the present. Artists in front of the audience reincarnate in the heroes of the film (the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky; the women he loved and left him; the friends who admired him and backed away from him; the ruthless “Knights of the Revolution” who proclaimed him his banner) and lead the viewer “to” Mayakovsky, forcing him to live his love, creative, and human drama as his own.