Alan Doguzov

The story of a Russian family living and dying through four wars: the Russian Civil War in 1920, the Great Patriotic War in 1942, the First Chechen War in 1996, and the Russian military invasion in Ukraine in 2017.

In the summer of 1999, in one of the cities in southern Russia, a terrorist act took place - the explosion of a residential building. The investigation into this case is led by an FSB operative, Captain Andrei Vereshchagin, nicknamed Captain Hollywood.

Tatyana is a forty-five year old teacher from Moscow who borrows a large sum of money to pay for her sick mother's operation. Sadly her mother dies, and Tatyana soon finds herself plunged into debt. Her financial situation spirals further out of control when she is ill advised by her friends to set up a cake stall at the local market, a venture, which, not surprisingly, fails. Tatyana is forced to sell her apartment and, after an argument with her niece with whom she has been staying, Tatyana is left with no job and nowhere to live.