On August 25, 1968, Soviet dissident Victor Fainberg joined seven other USSR citizens in the Red Square Demonstration to protest the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia. They were known as the "Magnificent Eight." Fainberg paid for his “five minutes of freedom” on the Red Square with 5 1/2 years of confinement and torture in a Soviet "mental hospital". From the crushing of the Prague Spring (1968) to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (2022), Fainberg’s insider testimony on the price and triumph of resistance to evil takes us on a breathtaking journey into the madness and hopes of contemporary Russia.

The poet Natalya Gorbanevskaya (1936-2013) gained wide popularity primarily as a member of the dissident movement and one of the legendary eight who, on August 25, 1968, went to Red Square to protest against the invasion of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia, paying for it with several years in prison. Gorbanevskaya was often called a heroine. She retorted, "I'm not a heroine, I'm an ordinary person." The authors of the film show several episodes from the life of Natalia Gorbanevskaya, wondering what kind of poet, woman, mother she was, and how her fate was after forced emigration from the USSR.

Olya is an active member of the LGBT community. Her friend Galiya doesn't want politics to rule their lives. They love each other and dream of having a child, but when the State Duma passes a discriminatory law against propaganda of homosexuality among minors, Olya begins to fight for the rights of sexual minorities even more strongly. At the same time, the girl's personal life is being tested.

Two families from Russia and the US are preparing to adopt a child from an orphanage in Russia. A Russian family brings home two children and experiences the first difficulties and joys of a new life. And on the path of an American family to adopt a 5-year-old girl with disabilities, there is a new law signed by President Putin that prohibits Americans from adopting Russian children. Will little Polina's dream of her own family come true?

On August 25, 1968, 7 people gathered near the Execution Ground in Moscow to protest against the entry of troops of the Warsaw Pact countries into Czechoslovakia. 5 minutes of freedom on the main square of the Soviet Union cost them years of prisons, exiles and camps. In the film, we meet three participants in the legendary "demonstration of the seven" and young fighters for human rights in contemporary Russia. Who are the dissenters of our time? What are they willing to sacrifice to live in a democratic society?