Boris Yukhananov and friends Tauz, Salah, Nadia, and Olya visit Nikita Mikhailovsky who is on location acting in a film near Pskov. Their purpose is to shoot an episode for the video novel The Mad Prince. Thus does the tragic history of the Chechen people intertwine with the biblical book of Esther, cinema with video, love with death, the sun with night, and happiness with tears.