An ambitious professor of psychiatry, Viktor Meshchersky, conducts a dangerous psychological experiment in which, under false pretenses, he locks victims and their abusers in the basement, hiding his true goals. The subsequent investigation will reveal the real motives of the professor, and will tie together the confusing stories of all participants in the cruel experiment.
Moscow with its glossy skyscrapers and busy highways is no longer home for Igor Sokolovsky. He took his daughter Sonya and moved to the picturesque countryside in the south. A cottage in the mountains, steep winding tracks, and a new eco-hotel as a family business - that's what his life is about now. But before the hotel's grand opening everything goes awry. The place gets smashed, then Sokolovsky meets another silver-spooner and steps on the toes of a local power broker who wants to destroy an entire residential area and build a winery there.
Early 20th century. Polina arrives at a girls' boarding school on a mysterious island to find her sister who disappeared under strange circumstances. Polina's investigation is complicated not only by conflicts with other girls and the imperious mentor Zakharova but also by a strange obsession that drives the girls mad, one after another. Polina needs to find out what happened to her sister without losing her mind in the process and get off the island which is sinking in the abyss of insanity.
USSR, 1980s. The Elista Children's Hospital is experiencing the country's first major HIV outbreak, with more than 70 children and several adults infected. Now everyone: doctors, patients, relatives need to preserve human dignity in the face of a terrible disease for which there is no cure yet.