The film is about the complicated and even paradoxical relationships in the world of academic music. The character of Aleksandr Maslaev represents the Maestro, a kind of modern Mozart, wallowing in corruption, plagiarism, and envy. Once a talented composer, he's totally lost his gift and cynically buys new music from young composers, then plays it under his own name. Yet, the Maestro does not close this chain, for everyone pays his debts...

A film about the backstage life of an ordinary Moscow bar, where relationships between the owner, the racketeer and the employees are pretty reminiscent of the ones in a family. However, unlike a family, they are connected by a mutual cause, the role in which are far from equal. Submission and humiliation weave through the characters' entire lives.