This film is based on works by the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov.

The 1920s Civil War in Russia. Routed by the Red Army, the panic-stricken White Guards were fleeing the country. Like a headlong avalanche, they carried along those who wouldn’t accept the new power. Among many who fled abroad from the Crimea were Roman Khludov, head of the general staff of Wrangel’s Army, a hangman and executioner; Sergei Golubkov, a university professor; Serafima Korzukhina, wife of a St. Petersburg business man who renounced her to save his own skin, and others. Their lives in a foreign land took different turns, but they were all destined to go through a bitter re-evaluation of their former ideals and personal dramas.