The film is about how children see the material and immaterial world of adults.
A young captain demobilized from the army, in search of a better life, comes to Moscow. All attempts to earn money honestly for housing and food end in failure. In addition, he owes a large sum to his comrade in the military school, who has long abandoned the army and is successfully dancing striptease in one of the capital's clubs. To pay back the debt, the hero agrees to work in a striptease and from that moment becomes a professional gigolo.
The author's remake of the famous New Year's comedy is not an exact copy of the original. Festive mess in the same House of Culture, where they celebrated the New Year 50 years ago. Now the institution is named after Ogurtsov and is headed by Mr. Kabachkov. A young enthusiast Alyona Krylatova and a young man Denis Kolechkin work in the recreation center. Alyona, as she can, opposes the "arts" of the bureaucrat and opportunist Kabachkov, and Denis helps her.
The painting is about the metaphysical "train of Russian history" that departed from the tsarist era, went through revolutionary cataclysms, three wars, the times of Stalinism and the "thaw" and finally arrived on the platform of our time. It is a platform of wild primordial capitalism, and its geographic location is the Russian-Chinese border.
The owner of a beautiful voice, Nikolai Bakhin, dreaming of getting into the Bolshoi Theater, takes vocal lessons from the famous singer and teacher Irina Tarnopolskaya. Bakhin is taken to the theater. After an internship at La Scala, success comes to the hero and the first invitation to Italy. Upon learning that Tarnopolskaya was in a car accident, Nikolai interrupts the tour and flies to Moscow...