In a small apartment in New York, in the sweltering mid-summer heat, a group of
Russian emigres gather around the sickbed of an artist named Alik. Nina, his wif
e, is desperate for Alik to be baptised; Irina, his ex-lover, a circus acrobat t
urned lawyer, quietly pays the bills; elderly Maria dispenses magical herbs; and
Maika, Irina's fifteen-year-old daughter, prepares to lose the only man to make
her laugh. As the visitors fuss and reminisce over Alik, in a corner of the cro
wded room the television shows the uprising outside the White House in Moscow an
d the tanks closing in on the city ...
