This melancholy triptych is gleaned from a trio of Shukshin's published stories, "Strange People," "A Thousand Pardons, M'am" and "Thoughts". The country folk of these and other Shukshin tales are often touched by a "strangeness," an eccentricity that takes them beyond superficial stereotypes, revealing their inner protest against the harsh burden of life. Here, three richly contrasting stories explore what Shukshin called "prixot," the fancies of personality. The first story is about a man who travels to the Crimea only to discover that his brother has lied about his success. Once there, he is maneuvered into courting a woman with a much-desired dowry, an apartment. This episode has the dry wit that is the hallmark of Shukshin's cinema; it begins slowly and builds deceptively into a confrontation between a naive human and a crass philistine. In the second story, the diminutive Bronka, who guides sportsmen on duck hunts, tells a tall-tale about his secret mission to kill Hitler. Though an inveterate liar, his outrageous story stirs only sympathy for a man led on by such an enormous imagination. In the grand final chapter, an elderly Kolkhoz chairman confides his disillusionment to a village sculptor. The man's recollections are presented through an array of vibrant images of life and death. This is Shukshin at his finest, embracing the full breadth and irony of pastoral life. Ian Christie writes, "In this magical episode, all his contradictory views of the village as both the cradle and the limit of Russian peasant culture are concentrated."