In imperial Russia, Pjotr goes to civil war at the age of 15 to defend the Tsar. While the bolsheviks gain ground he deserts on horseback, leaving behind his mother and brothers. After three years without news from her son, his mother thinks Pjotr is dead until she receives a letter from him. On exhile, Pjotr reads his mother’s letters while he tries to detach from former motherland. This family is revisited through the eyes of Pjotr’s granddaughter, Aya, intertwining facts and dreams, times and generations.