Synopsis
The story is set in the present and follows the classical road-movie genre, with the heroine traveling across three countries: Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Anya is a 23-year-old university teacher. Petite and anemic, she looks to be fourteen to sixteen years old. She is a determined, self-made woman. Since she spent her childhood at an orphanage she is very immature in some ways and in need of parental care, something she was deprived of during her childhood. Anya has failed to learn some important human values, such as looking after loved ones, being responsible for one’s own life and having the capacity to love, etc. Just as her career is about to take off she is wrongly accused of drug possession. All her previous relationships are unable to hold up and tumble down like a house of cards. Once the heroine stumbles she is kicked and trampled upon. Her friends turn their back on her. Her carefully arranged plans for conquering the world misfire and she escapes to the only place she knows well, the orphanage.
Taking advantage of her youthful appearance, Anya goes to a half-way house for the homeless. The environment that she used to know so well, however sordid and cruel, provides a hiding place and gives her some breathing space. The turning point in the film comes when she has to escape.
She makes her escape together with Kristina, a withdrawn-looking 13-year-old girl. She hardly talks and becomes mad and aggressive when somebody tries to talk to her. She had been to several orphanages from which she had invariably escaped. She dreams of running away to be with her grandmother in Kyrgyzstan. Kristina does not remember her grandmother, having last seen her when she was a year old. Anya has nowhere to go and when the threat of discovery forces her to leave this orphanage as well she decides to go with Kristina.
The two traveling companions could not be more different: one is a highly accomplished woman with values and goals, while the other is a girl on the threshold of adulthood who has lived through hell, but who is pure and kind at heart.
When they hit the road, both behave as chance fellow travelers rather than friends. But gradually, as they quarrel and encounter challenges, they draw closer and eventually develop affection for each other. Kristina opens up and begins telling Anya made-up fairy tales, and Anya is struck by her talent. Their relationship changes Anya’s attitude toward love, life and herself. Unexpectedly, she finds in Kristina what she had been secretly longing for all her life: a close friend to look out for.
Towards the end of the journey they become like sisters. Suddenly, Kristina is killed an accident that turns to be a terrible blow for Anya. In spite of the fact that Anya has now been exculpated from the false accusation but she decides to go on to Kristina’s grandmother to fulfill her wish and walk in Kristina’s shoes…