Vadim Rudenko

By the age of twenty, Eduard Streltsov has everything one can dream of: talent, fame and love. He is the rising star of Soviet football. The whole country, with bated breath, expects victory from the national team at the upcoming World Cup where Streltsov is to face the great Brazilian football player Pelé. However, two days before the departure of the team, the sportsman’s enemies manage to destroy his career. When the door to big sport seems to be closed for good, Streltsov has to re-enter the field and prove that he is a true champion who is worth everybody’s love.

As the new year celebrations approach, a bunch of characters throughout Russia experience diverse situations that eventually get interconnected towards a joyous finale.

It's been a year since Katya's wedding so now Dasha is getting ready to marry.

Little Elizabeth thought her future was predestined: she was to marry Louis XV and become the Queen of France – that was the promise given to her by her father, Emperor of Russia Peter the Great. When Peter dies in 1725 without naming a successor, an era of palace coups and power struggles begins in Russia. For some tumultuous years it remains to be seen whether the young Russian Empire and its new capital St. Petersburg would stand, and what future lies in store for the country of Russia. Peter's widow, Catherine I, becomes Empress - the first woman to rule Imperial Russia. She wishes to fulfil the promise her late husband had given to their daughter, but fails. Young Louis XV refuses to marry Elizabeth after learning that she was born before her parents were officially married. That, in his eyes, made her illegitimate.

After the unsuccessful attempt on the life of Baron Wrangel and the death of an intelligence agent, a new cunning plan is being developed to implement the "Crimean Mission". The best agent, Elena Golubovskaya, is appointed to this case. In Crimea, Golubovskaya appears already as El Ferrari - a gifted Italian poet. Her task is to eliminate Wrangel in order to demoralize the white movement, as well as control the operation to steal gold. Her plans are thwarted by Maximilian Ermler, a local newspaper journalist who turns out to be a British intelligence agent.

A talented doctor, a rich slacker, a good mother and other people whose life looks perfect only from the outside are in an eternal search for an answer to the question of what happiness is.