Kira Muratova made this film under the pseudonym of Ivan Sidorov in 1983, but the official release came in 1988. Taken from the novel by Vladimir Korolenko, this somber drama tells of a judge who is devastated after the death of his wife and is neglectful of his children. His son befriends the children of a street beggar who live in an abandoned, derelict church. After his experience with is new friends, the young boy begins to feel sorry for his father and sympathizes with his loneliness.