The story is set in a relatively comfortable Stalin-era prison in the town of Marfino where a community of prisoners with highly technical skills do research for the state. Based on the novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

The Prohibition years. Chicago bootleggers suffer losses due to their betrayal by one Mick Nich - Mikita Nichiporuk. The mob decides to execute the traitor, who escaped to Odesa, USSR, and organized his own bootleg business there. The hitman, Pollack, arrives in Odesa, and realizes how hard it is to make the hit here, as compared to a civilized country like USA.

The story how he will never see her and she will never forget him.

Young lovers Hero and Claudio, soon to wed, conspire to get verbal sparring partners and confirmed singles Benedick and Beatrice to wed as well.