It is claimed that reindeer contaminated by radioactivity are spreading throughout the Far North. Tatiana, a Moscow scientist, is sent to Siberia. She is accompanied by a whimsical pilot, retired from the Soviet army, and an interpreter, young Neva, who speaks the language of the nomadic herders living in the region. This uncertain trio boards an old Antonov, bound for the north and the coming winter.
En route, nothing goes according to plan. And what is possible to predict in this immense Russia, where snow covers all human tracks? When life depends on the flame of a candle, shadows transform the world: the pace of herds, the words of Pushkin, the tigers of dreams and the frozen treasures of the deep. And the best way, whether funny or tragic, to pass the time is certainly to get drunk telling stories, the ones we invent, the ones we confuse, the ones we take into the night.
