A romantic triangle at once strains and strengthens the bond between two women in this drama from Russia that spans four decades. When they were in their twenties, Katya (Jana Esipovich) and Valentina (Dana Agisheva) were close friends who both fell in love with the same man, Valentin (Mikhail Evlanov). But while Valentin was fond of Katya, he was much more strongly attracted to Valentina, and the two became lovers, with Valentina sometimes toying with Katya over her good fortune. When Valentin gets in a fight with one of his neighbors and is charged with assault and battery, he's sent to jail, and Valentina is separated from her man for several years. When Valentin is released, to Valentina's shock Katya seduces him, and uses her allure to persuade him to marry her. Twenty years later, Valentin and Katya (now played by Alexandra Kulikova) are still together, but their relationship is thrown for a loop when Valentina (now played by Irina Evdokimova) shows up for an unannounced visit, and makes it clear that she's still loves Valentin and intends to take him away from her old friend. Another two decades on, Valentina (played in her later years by Elena Levinskaya) is sharing a house by the seaside with Katya (played in her later years by Natalia Sedykh), but age hasn't diluted the bad blood between them. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide