The film tells about a few days in the life of writer Sergei Dovlatov (Milan Marić) in 1971 Leningrad, on the eve of the emigration of his friend, the future Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky (Artur Beschastny). Sergei is determined to stay and lead a normal life with his wife Elena (Helena Sujecka) and daughter Katya (Eva Herr). Dovlatov's manuscripts are regularly rejected by the official media as his point of view is deemed undesirable. His friend is artist David (Danila Kozlovsky), a Fartsovka who sells foreign goods on the black market. During this time Sergei tries to buy his daughter a German doll but is not able to find one anywhere.