Aprel Mig Pictures

Bella, who is disliked by her mother-in-law, has been subjected to various household tasks and even beaten without her husband Shah's knowledge. Bella complains to her family and they urge her to return home, but Bella refuses because she loves Shah very much.

Miron Alekseevich, director of a paper and pulp mill, goes to bury his wife Tanya in the place where they once spent their honeymoon. He goes not alone, but with a photographer named Stork, to whom he tells touching details of his life with Tanya. The narrative weaves together the memories of the characters, as well as the rituals and beliefs of the Meri people, a small Finnish tribe that once lived in the Northern Volga region and dissolved among the Russians.