Nadezhda Stoyanova is a renowned translator from Japanese and a university professor at the peak of her career and experience when she learns that she has a tumor. She finds out together with her daughter Evgenia, a host on the most-watched television channel. Both believe that the illness will be cured and that their lives will not change drastically - Evgenia continues her routine television work, while Nadezhda begins translating what is considered an untranslatable Japanese novel by Nobel laureate Yukio Kobayashi, titled Flesh. But they are both mistaken. Nothing will ever be the same again, because it is precisely the flesh—the inescapable human flesh—that has the final word.
Lyubo is an actor in a provincial theater. He prepares for his role of Cirano De Bergerak from the play by Edmond Rostand. This is his dream role. His edge outside the theater is slowed down by the conformity of the artisan-ship. Lily is a pianist. She is taken by her pupils at the musician school. She wants to overcome her stage fright. Lyubo and Lily have never met. They know each other thanks to a wrongly dialed number. The culmination comes, just like in Rostand's play. The two arrange to meet, but Lyubo gets scared and he sends his friend - an unscrupulous boy. The one who gets the victory is not the one Lily loves.