The provincial bandit of Vorkuta lived under the motto "We are not like that ― life is like that," but in 1999 the dashing 90s ended, and he received a sentence. In prison, he lost sleep, and after a couple of weeks of insomnia, he saw his conscience in the form of a man who said that as long as he was bad, he would not sleep.

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.