Andrey Khrzhanovskiy directs this semi-fictionalised account of the childhood and early life of Russian poet, essayist and Nobel Laureate in Literature, Joseph Brodsky (Grigoriy Dityatkovskiy), who was forced into American exile in 1972. Weaving together actual footage and dramatised sequences with readings from Brodsky's poetry and prose, the film depicts his childhood in Leningrad and his development into an outspoken political thinker and intellectual, which leads first to his exile to a remote village and finally to his expulsion from his beloved Russia.