The controversy surrounding Wings made Shepitko's next venture an even more daring portrait of an individual who comes to doubt the validity of his work and life. Leonid Dyachkov portrays the young surgeon Pyotr, who impulsively boards a train heading for Siberia in order to reconcile his crisis in the stark isolation of that setting. En route he has encounters that loosen the hold his troubles have on him, but in the end these experiences make his self-evaluation no less painful. His story is conceived in a series of flashbacks in which his wife (Alla Demidova) is also revealed to be in the grip of important changes. Of this sensitive and penetrating character study, Derek Elley wrote in International Film Guide: “Shepitko's meticulously assembled work holds the viewer in every scene with its Resnais-like time structure and dazzling imagery.”