Olga Kaziko

Début des années 1930. La vie paisible d'une ferme collective exemplaire est déchirée par les pénuries et les dissensions. Un commissaire est envoyé pour découvrir la source des problèmes, sans savoir qu'il s'agit d'un véritable sabotage.

Nadya Shumin is engaged to be married to Andrey Andreitch, the son of a local priest. Nadya lives on her grandmother's estate with her mother, "a fair-haired woman tightly laced in, with a pince-nez, and diamonds on every finger." While Nadya is a woman with a great desire for education and independence, Andrey is a friendly but rather vacuous and totally unmotivated man. Sasha, an ill and impoverished young man who is spending the summer on the estate has long been considered part of the family. Sasha implores Nadya to follow her heart - to go to Petersburg and attend the University.

July-December 1917, the country is undergoing a revolution. "The pillars of society" are alarmed by the looming on them menacing events. Some of them are ready to fight with the revolution, others — among them industrialist Vasily Dostigaev trying to "adapt»