A story of environmental disaster, a disappearing people, and one strong-willed woman. The once lush Nogai steppe in northern Dagestan is rapidly turning into an endless desert. Gulfira, a humble village woman, is leading the fight against the environmental catastrophe threatening her homeland. Each autumn, the team she leads ventures deep into the new desert for months at a time. Walking kilometers each day, they plant thin rods in the dry sand, hoping the bushes will take root and halt the spread of the dunes. Will Gulfira prevail in this battle against the elements? Can the Nogai people and their land survive?

After twenty-five years abroad, Natalya comes back to Russia and tries to change the life in her native village by using Western experience, but the authorities don't want that and the villagers fear of changes.

Vitaly and Victor have been friends all their lives. They were born in 1936 in the Kyrgyz USSR, survived the famine during World War II, graduated from school in the year of Stalin's death, and left for central Russia to build communism. Now they are over eighty. The system to which they devoted their lives collapsed, the homeland became a separate country. Together they decide on a desperate journey to Kyrgyzstan to find the graves of their parents and take stock.

Uncle Sasha is a dreamer who lives on an island in a "dead" village, surrounded on all sides by water. He dreams of the restoration of the monarchy and the revival of the wise Russian way of life, trampled by European influence. Every spring he builds a bridge, and every winter he breaks it with ice. Now Uncle Sasha has begun the construction of the thirtieth bridge.

A six-month voyage along the Siberian rivers is a real test for doctors, life in small cabins, strict ship routine, drills and emergencies. Nurse Vika left her little son at home, who gradually forgets her. Dr. Olga Nikolaevna escaped from loneliness, as her son grew up, and now he has his own life. Difficult relationships in the team, as there is no opportunity to take a break from others. The motor ship climbs far along the tributaries of the rivers, where heavy vehicles have not been seen for a long time. Rising to the Ural Mountains, at the risk of running aground, the ship reaches the most remote villages. Zyryans live there, many of whom still wear national clothes. Khanty and Mansi live down the river. The captain must keep not only the ship, but also the team in good shape, because this team has its own problems.

To understand what is happening in modern Russia, it is not enough to go outside and look around, or read news reports. If you want to get to the bottom of it, then the best way is to radically change your angle of view and look at everything, for example, through the eyes of a horse that serves in an operational regiment in the center of the capital.

After a devastating civil war in his homeland, in African Rwanda, Francois and his family ended up in Russia, in a small remote village. All he has left is hope. Seven years of struggle for a residence permit, the inability to work in their specialty, six children and a drinking village. But François does not give up. He is engaged in agriculture and dreams of building a children's educational center, since Russia is now not just a country for him, it is the birthplace of his children.