Maxim Shugalei the sociologist and Samer Suifan his interpreter are finally returning back to Russia after a long imprisonment in the Libyan Mitiga prison. A few months later, Shugalei is approached by his friend - Farid, a former bank manager in Tripoli,
Moscow, 1902. The famous director Konstantin Stanislavsky, in search of inspiration for staging a new play, decides to get acquainted with the life of the city "bottom". He turns to Vladimir Gilyarovsky, a recognized expert on the Moscow slums,