This is a story about the battle for a hospital building in Grozny (Chechnya) in January 1995 between Russian Army forces and Chechen rebels supported by Arabian mujahideen and international mercenaries. Although the story is fictional, most of the characters are based on real-life prototypes and events are the compilation of true events during the Grozny Siege in the First Chechen War.

Purgatory

A certain Hawthorne approaches a young, talented, but not very famous actress Elda with an unusual request. He offers her, for an impressive sum, to play the role of Angotea, the wife of the dying Ferguson, who has disappeared and to whom Elda is extremely similar in appearance.

Paradise Overturned

Rita is a naive 18-year-old from the sticks who has come to Moscow to meet up with the man who impregnated her a few months earlier. Unfortunately, his name and address was written on a piece of paper in her luggage, which was promptly stolen upon her arrival in Moscow. Thus, she is a bit at loose ends, and going back home is clearly not an option.

The Greenhouse Effect

A group of soldiers is stuck on the Russian-Chechen border near the field which locals call dead.