An enthusiastic village girl Saulė and a modest single mother Ona are passionate cooks stuck in the Kaunas canteen "Gardutė". One day, Saulė, without Ona's consent, includes them in a culinary reality show, the main prize of which is her own restaurant. Saulė lies to the commission about her background and claims that they are both qualified chefs from the La Gardutė restaurant.
Yakut Stepan Beresekov periodically falls into a lethargic sleep. Only a Russian, the son of a priest, Ivan Popov, can distinguish his condition from real death. But Popov is going on a long ethnographic expedition. Stepan decides to follow his savior so as not to be buried alive.
During the day, Lera studies humankind and its needs through opinion polls, which are an educational practice at the institute; at night, she dances under the pseudonym Gerda in a club to support herself and her mother. The people she meets are as unfortunate as her family. Her father has recently left for another woman, but he constantly returns home, unable to make his choice and thereby making the life of close people intolerable. The mother painfully endures the breakup and constantly sleeps, ignoring reality. Lera doesn’t know how to carry on, where to go and what to live for, and — most importantly — how to improve life. The adult world, invariable unfortunate, which Lera observes day and night, seems hopeless.