A village in the Urals, between war-ravaged Leningrad and the gulags of Siberia, is the setting of this whirlwind, tragicomic portrayal of Russian provincial life during the summer of 1953, just after Stalin's death. Home to countless war refugees and ex-political prisoners, the town's communal living barracks boast a mix of Germans, Russians, Tartars, and Jews. All of them welcome Olga, the sole survivor of a family wiped out during the siege of Leningrad. Olga's new community is at once tender, serious, and zany, as the barracks dwellers attempt to forget an oppressive past and live again with relative nonchalance. The stunning camerawork is reminiscent of the work of Alexei Gherman.