Autumn 1929. Lina, from the noble Golitsyn family, arrives on a date with her husband Georgy Osorgin, who is serving a prison sentence in the Solovetsky special purpose camp. Lina does not know that after she leaves the island, her husband will be shot. Osorgin received a terrible sentence after he, a deeply religious man, secretly brought holy gifts to the dying Archimandrite so that he could take communion before his death. The camp authorities took the Russian officer's word of honor from Osorgin not to tell his wife anything about his predetermined fate. Only on this condition did they agree to temporarily release him from the punishment cell for his last meeting with Lina. The spouses spend the precious three days allotted to them and feel happy in the most inappropriate circumstances. Osorgin says goodbye to Lina on the pier. When the ship becomes a dot on the horizon, the guards escort George back to the punishment cell, where he carefully dresses for his final journey.
Since early childhood Peter has been obsessed with the world of puppets, but his greater obsession is with a real girl, Lisa. He crafts his perfect woman out of her. But Lisa isn't a docile marionette. She's a living human being and she rebels against her creator. Based on the critically-acclaimed, brilliant and poignant novel by one of the best contemporary Russian writers, Dina Rubina, "Petrushka Syndrome" is a multidimensional metaphor, where a sense of duality pervades everything. People and dolls, life and art, the Creator and the creation depend on one another. And where does one draw the line between them?
Ivan, a successful oncologist who has created a cure for cancer, discovers suddenly that by an ironical twist of fate he is terminally ill. He realizes that he has one chance to correct the mistake he made a long time ago, and leaves his family to go to another city to the woman he loved all his life, hoping to spend the last night with her...