Subay torununu görmek için 7 yıl sonra Çeçenistan’daki Rus askeri üssüne gelen Alexandra adlı yaşlı kadın burada birkaç gün geçirir ve yerel halkın hakaretlerine maruz kalır. Sonra “Erkekler düşman olabilir ama biz kardeşiz” diyen ve küçük bir dükkân işleten Malika’yla arkadaş olur. Film, iyiliğin ve kötülüğün doğasına dair incelikli bir keşif yolculuğu.

Aleksandra

A mining town in Russia at the end of the nineties. A miners' strike has paralysed the place, corruption and fraud are flourishing in the transitional period from a socialist economy to a market economy. In this world of lost souls lives Yekaterina Artemovna (Katya). This unconspicuous woman has, in the words of her future lover, a "heart of gold". The only bright spots in her lonely life in a meagre communal apartment are literature and her work in the town library.
 The only bright ray flashed in the life of the heroine is a visiting sailor. But he turns out to be a gigolo and leaves the poor woman. The tense string inside the heroine bursts, the iron nerves lose, and restrained Yekaterina at this point loses all patience with life and ready for the most desperate and cruel revenge...

Tambourine, Drum

On the edge of Dushanbe, in the Republic of Tajikistan, a quiet border checkpoint under Russian control is attacked by Afghans and Tajiks who want it under their control.